


Trade Mistakes

by gay_ass_slytherin, scorpius_cinnamon_roll



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling, SKAM (TV)
Genre: Eating Disorders, Evak - Freeform, Fluff and Angst, Harry Potter Next Generation, Heavy Angst, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Musicals, No Smut, Scorbus, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2018-12-09 22:48:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11678700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gay_ass_slytherin/pseuds/gay_ass_slytherin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpius_cinnamon_roll/pseuds/scorpius_cinnamon_roll
Summary: Scorpius and Albus have been best friends ever since their first year at Hogwarts. But can their friendship survive when an unforeseen disaster throws Scorpius' life into disarray. The pair make terrible mistakes that they could live to regret forever. Will Scorpius falling apart destroy their bond or will it bring them closer together than they have ever been before?





	1. Happy Bitches

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: A lot of characters featured in this fanfiction belong to J.K Rowling, and a few others belong to Julie Andem. However many of the characters we have created by ourselves.  
> Warning: This fanfiction contains content which may upset some readers, such as mental, and eating disorders. It also contains some foul language and homophobic, and sexist slurs. We would like to remind our readers that we have written the characters realistically so they are bound to have flaws.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first night back at Hogwarts after Christmas proves to be more eventful than two fifth year slytherins had anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: Minor descriptions of blood/injury and some homophobic insults.

The first evening back after Christmas was always a busy time at Hogwarts, friends catching up, sharing stories of mince pies and extravagant gifts. The Slytherin common room was filled to its capacity, meaning that even those huddled closely had to shout in order to hear one another. Two students who had skipped the formalities of idle Christmas chatter were Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter, who had managed to secure a corner to themselves, something of an achievement considering the crowds. Scorpius was currently seated at Albus’ feet, his head leant against his friend’s knees, Albus was absentmindedly stroking his fingers through Scorpius’ tangled hair. Whilst many would assume that their close proximity to one another was a result of the limited space, those who knew the pair closely knew that the two friends had always preferred to minimise the amount of space between them and it was actually very common to see Scorpius sat on Albus’ lap, or the blond with his arm around his best friend’s shoulder, Rose Weasley even swore blind that once she’d seen them holding hands in Hogsmeade.

Whilst others were shouting and laughing, Scorpius and Albus preferred to work quietly or even in silence, making it difficult for an outsider to determine what exactly they were up to. Over the years rumours had begun to spread about what exactly the two were discussing or working on when they sat whispering to each other, some suspected that they were planning the next wizarding uprising, whilst others assumed they were romantically involved. However, nobody had ever managed to guess accurately.

In reality the two were following in the footsteps of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, and running their own successful, underground business: Subrocs. The project had started out small, back in their second year, when Albus made the horrifying discovery that Netflix couldn’t be accessed at Hogwarts. Scorpius, determined to resolve his friend’s dismay, had found a clever way to introduce Wi-Fi to the Slytherin common room. Over the years the two had discovered that there were many things, like Netflix, that students were unable to access at school. For example, muggle confectionary and even some bath products and so what had begun as a simple way to cheer up a friend, had developed into an inter-house, teacher and student business, run almost exclusively by Scorpius and Albus, with the help of a few select others.

One of these ‘select few’ was the Hogwarts heartthrob and Slytherin’s quidditch captain. Edmund, or ‘Ed’, McGonagall was the great nephew of Hogwarts’ infamous Headteacher Minerva McGonagall and had been blessed with very attractive looks. His handsome demeanour had not gone unnoticed by either Scorpius or Albus and the pair often found themselves accidently discussing the older boy.

“I bet his lips are really soft,” Albus said, turning his head slightly, as if to better inspect the Keeper’s mouth. 

Scorpius nodded in agreement.

“Well I don’t know how soft his lips are, but I’d love to run my fingers through his hair,” he sighed.

Albus nodded enthusiastically

“And that body!”

“You know who he looks a bit like?" Scorpius said thoughtfully. “That footman from Downton Abbey.”

Rose, who had managed to sneak into the common room, despite being a Ravenclaw, rolled her eyes at her oblivious cousin and friend.

“How have you not figured it out yet?” she asked, her voice somewhat exasperated.

Scorpius looked at her, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, making him look even more adorable than he already did in his fluffy unicorn onesie. If there was one thing more famous at Hogwarts than Ed’s good looks it was the fact that Scorpius was a regular onesie wearer, all the first and second year girls were particularly jealous of his categorised collection of the all in one pyjamas. In short if he wasn’t required to wear school uniform or going somewhere outside, the chances were the young Malfoy was in a onesie, whether it be an animal or patterned sparkly one.

Rose sighed, knowing they’d figure it out by themselves; she decided to change the subject.

“So how’s the business going?”

The two boys’ eyes lit up simultaneously and Scorpius began to chatter eagerly.

“Well we’ve decided to expand, we’re going to start selling muggle bath bombs this year too” he said gesturing to the pile of Lush products that he was currently gift wrapping.

“Is that where you disappeared to for hours when we went to the muggle shopping centre in the holidays?” she asked, remembering the three hour long search her and a very distressed Albus had embarked on to try and find a missing Scorpius in the midst of muggle Christmas sales. Scorpius blushed in response and muttered something about lemon shampoo.

As the evening progressed the long day of travelling began to catch up with Scorpius, as he yawned for the sixth time that hour, he climbed on to the sofa and nuzzled his head in Albus’s lap, placing his hand over his face like a cat. He was asleep in minutes.

“How can he sleep through this racket?” Rose asked, looking around at the noisy common room.

“Oh they’ll shut up in a minute,” Albus whispered, he was referring to the fact that ever since he’d known Scorpius, the blond had been known to sing musical theatre tunes in his sleep, in fact his talents had become well known by the majority of Slytherin house, who loved to gather around for the so called ‘Slumber Concerts’.

As if on cue Scorpius began to sing, he was slurring slightly, but the sound coming out of his mouth was beautiful all the same. Rose stared in disbelief as students began to quiet down, some even moving closer to the blond in order to listen.

“So he still does that?” she asked loudly, causing everyone to ‘ssh’ her and mutter about how a Ravenclaw shouldn’t be here anyway.

“Albus tell your lesbian cousin to piss off” Someone stage whispered.

Rose looked furiously at Albus, who glared at the third year.

“Rose’s sexuality has nothing to do with the fact she’s annoying,” he replied.

“Gee thanks Al,” Rose said sarcastically.

Albus shot her an apologetic look that just made her roll her eyes again.

Gathering her books, she stood up to leave.

“Fine! I’m going!” she huffed. “I hate The Wizard of Oz anyway!” And with that she stormed out of the common room door. 

Everyone rolled their eyes and turned back to the singing boy, who had just embarked on the song ‘All that Jazz’. As he reached the chorus he turned, consequently slamming his forehead into Albus’s crotch, causing the brown haired boy to jolt into a standing position crying out.

“Shit!”

Albus watched in horror as his friend rolled of his lap, his head colliding with the coffee table with a harsh smack.

People leapt up, first years screaming at the sight of blood everywhere. Albus looked at his best friend in terror, only to let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Scorpius had opened his eyes.

He began to apologise profusely to Scorpius, who was still laying on the floor in shock. For a moment the two gazed silently into each other’s eyes, before the moment was interrupted by a certain Quidditch Captain.

“Goodness, Scorp is everything okay?” Ed asked gently.

Upon being asked this simple question, Scorpius began to cry silently, it was as if the reality of someone other than Albus addressing what had just happened was overwhelming.

Ed moved to inspect the gash on the back of Scorpius’ head.

“It’s not too bad,” he said kindly, “I should be able to fix it up.”

Scorpius nodded slowly, before trying to stand, stumbling over his own feet.

“Woah!” Ed cried, grabbing the blond by his slender waist.

“Lean on me.”

Scorpius obliged and latched on to Ed like a Koala bear, fortunately Ed was the only one in Slytherin house to match Scorpius’ excessive, giraffe like height, so the latter was able to rest his head on Ed’s shoulder.  
Albus watched as Ed practically carried Scorpius over to a chair and placed him down. Ed then proceeded to lean over the younger boy and cast silent spells on the back of his head.

Scorpius, who appeared to be in a world of his own, raised his hand slowly and Albus had no idea what his friend was going to do, surely he wasn’t going to hit the sixth year?

To Albus’ surprise, Scorpius placed his hand on top of Ed’s hair and began stroking it lethargically. Ed blushed and pulled away, his work on Scorpius’ head was complete.

As Scorpius drifted slowly back to sleep. Albus had to stifle a giggle as his best friend sung the opening line to ’Fixer Upper’ from Frozen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter of our story! We will aim to update regularly on Wednesdays and Saturdays with the intention of the whole story being published by early December. Please leave kudos and comments! Thank you!


	2. Cinnamon Rolls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t be too harsh on your little boyfriend,” he laughed, winking at Albus. 
> 
> Both Albus and Scorpius opened their mouths in shock.
> 
> “N-no we’re not gay,” they spluttered. Ed raised an eyebrow.

_-The next morning- ___

__Albus knocked gently on the oak door of the fifth year boy’s dormitory, he heard no answer and so assumed that Scorpius was still asleep. He carefully shifted the tray he was holding in order to open the door. Upon entering he was greeted by the sight of a small lump under the covers of his best friend’s bed, blond hair peeking out from under a unicorn hood on the pillow._ _

__Quietly, Albus placed the tray on the bedside table, before going to shake his friend awake however; he was distracted by a rogue curl of Scorpius’ hair, resting on the boy’s forehead. He carefully moved his hand to tuck the piece of hair behind his friend’s ear, his fingers lingering on the blond’s cheekbone for a moment. Realising what he was doing he stepped back and coughed loudly, stirring Scorpius._ _

__“Al,” Scorpius croaked, his voice heavy with sleep._ _

__“Morning!” Albus said quickly, his voice an octave too high to be considered completely natural._ _

__Luckily, Scorpius was distracted by the cinnamon rolls on the tray to notice, he glanced between the pastries and Albus, raising an eyebrow curiously._ _

__“Cinnamon rolls for the cinnamon roll?” Albus joked,_ _

__Scorpius beamed and grabbed two of the four rolls._ _

__“Not that I’m complaining, but why am I eating breakfast in bed?” Scorpius asked through a mouthful of food._ _

__“You slept through breakfast and I figured you wouldn’t want to brave Potions on an empty stomach,” Albus replied._ _

__Scorpius nodded in understanding, before starting on his third roll._ _

__“How are you so skinny? It’s not fair!” Albus moaned._ _

__Scorpius just smirked and made a point of taking a large bite of the roll._ _

__“You better hurry up and get dressed,” Albus said, rolling his eyes affectionately._ _

__Scorpius climbed out of bed and made his way into the bathroom, a moment later Albus heard a very high pitch shriek._ _

__“What’s wrong?” he cried, bursting through the bathroom door._ _

__Scorpius turned to look at him in anger._ _

__“ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER WHY IS THERE BLOOD ON MY FAVOURITE UNICORN ONESIE!?”_ _

__Albus chuckled._ _

__“Sorry love, next time I’ll tell Ed to make sure you’re in your second best one before he heals your head,” he teased._ _

__Scorpius scowled and stripped out of the blood stained onesie, before stalking back into the bedroom and rummaging through his wardrobe for his uniform._ _

___-20 minutes later- ____ _

____Eventually the two boys made their way down to lessons and took a seat in the first row, this was Albus’ least favourite spot but he knew that Scorpius preferred to be at the front, in order to avoid missing anything._ _ _ _

____Slughorn began the lesson by announcing that his best sixth year student, Ed, would be helping those struggling this term, due to the fact the older boy had a free period at the time of fifth year potions.  
As the lesson began, Ed approached Albus and Scorpius’ table._ _ _ _

____“Hey, how are you Scorpius?” he asked the fifth year._ _ _ _

____The blond, who was engrossed in his work, jolted upon hearing his name and stared at Ed before stuttering the first thing that came to mind._ _ _ _

____“You have really soft hair!”_ _ _ _

____Ed looked slightly confused by this sudden outburst, but after a moment’s hesitation, his face broke out into a smile._ _ _ _

____“I’m flattered.”_ _ _ _

____Scorpius blushed and quickly started adding things to the cauldron. Ed and Albus exchanged an amused glance, before Ed turned his attention back to Scorpius._ _ _ _

____“Seriously how you feeling?” he asked, placing a hand on the younger male’s arm, a gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by Albus._ _ _ _

____“Well I’ve got a splitting headache, thanks to this one,” he snapped, scowling at Albus, who looked instantly concerned._ _ _ _

____Ed however just chuckled and patted Scorpius on the back._ _ _ _

____“Don’t be too harsh on your little boyfriend,” he laughed, winking at Albus._ _ _ _

____Both Albus and Scorpius opened their mouths in shock._ _ _ _

____“N-no we’re not gay,” they spluttered. Ed raised an eyebrow._ _ _ _

____“Is there something wrong with being gay?” he asked._ _ _ _

____Scorpius and Albus quickly reassured him that they weren’t at all homophobic and Ed seemed relieved._ _ _ _

____“Good because otherwise we could never be friends,” he joked._ _ _ _

____“Are you gay then?” Albus asked curiously._ _ _ _

____Ed nodded._ _ _ _

____“Well, pansexual to be specific.”_ _ _ _

____Albus and Scorpius nodded in understanding._ _ _ _

____“Do you tell everyone?” Scorpius asked quietly._ _ _ _

____Ed nodded again._ _ _ _

____“Yup!”_ _ _ _

____Scorpius gave a small smile._ _ _ _

____“That’s cool,” he whispered, his voice filled with a quiet admiration._ _ _ _

____After potions, followed by Transfiguration, the boys made their way to the Great Hall for lunch. They sat down across from Ed and their other friends, Dylan, who was a half-blood with dark skin and wild hair and Isaac a pureblood with olive skin and thick curly hair and who had recently come out as bisexual. Scorpius rested his head on Albus’ shoulder, closing his eyes._ _ _ _

____“My head really does hurt Al,” he said softly._ _ _ _

____“I’m so sorry,” Albus said quietly, putting his arm around his friend’s narrow shoulders._ _ _ _

____“I know,” Scorpius sighed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes tiredly._ _ _ _

____Albus rubbed the blond’s back slowly, as Scorpius reached for a bread roll._ _ _ _

____“Here take these,” said Ed, noticing Scorpius’ discomfort and reaching into his bag for paracetamol._ _ _ _

____“Thanks,” Scorpius replied, sending Ed a grateful smile, before swallowing the tablets down with a gulp of pumpkin juice._ _ _ _

____Albus couldn’t help but feel somewhat jealous that Ed was the one able to help his friend, but he quickly brushed it off, feeling immediately guilty when he remembered that he had been the one to cause Scorpius’ headache in the first place._ _ _ _

____“Well at least we’ve only got charms next,” he said cheerily, trying to lighten the somewhat sombre mood._ _ _ _

____+++_ _ _ _

____Although it was still winter, the sun was shining through the cold. So the group of friends decided to take a stroll around the grounds, chattering away, gossiping about fellow students love lives and complaining about their different professors. At one point, Scorpius reminded them to their dismay that they all have homework to complete. The group complained a little, but Scorpius replied with one of his signature phrases._ _ _ _

____“It’s better to get it out of the way!”_ _ _ _

____He was heavily influenced by Rose’s schoolwork ethos and the two had been competing for top of every class since the first ever day of school, when Scorpius had succeeded in transfiguring a match into a needle before Rose._ _ _ _

____The group made their way to the largest bench the grounds had to offer however, it was still not quite long enough for the big group, resulting in rather an odd sight to behold for all who saw them._ _ _ _

____Albus, Ed and Isaac had all claimed a spot on the bench itself, whilst the others had been forced to use their imaginations. Dylan had made the sensible decision to sit on the floor, his back resting against the bench, whilst Scorpius had taken the less traditional seat of Ed’s lap, Albus expected the older boy to laugh and push Scorpius off, but instead he shifted to make Scorpius more comfortable, and placed his hand on the smallest part of the fifth year’s back._ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed it. Also if something didn't quite make sense don't be afraid to let us know, we appreciate all feedback. The next chapter will be out on Saturday!


	3. The Unexpected Bludger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The older Malfoy looked entirely unimpressed and suddenly Scorpius seemed to realise who he was actually talking too. The lack of a smile on Draco’s face dulled Scorpius’ confidence and he suddenly felt self-conscious, he shifted to wrap his arms around his chest.
> 
> “Uh hi Dad. What’s up?” he asked in embarrassment.
> 
> “We need to have serious talk Scorpius,” Draco said sternly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for some bad language

It was the morning of the first Quidditch game after Christmas and nobody was more excited, or nervous than Albus, who had recently been appointed the position of beater for the Slytherin team after the previous occupant, a seventh year named Lyra, had stepped down in order to focus on her studies.

Albus wasn’t the greatest at Quidditch, despite his father’s talents and so suspected that his hasty appointment on the team had been a result of lack of awareness that emergency replacement try-outs were being held. Nonetheless, he was a decent player, and had just managed to scrape his way on to the team for the first time, something that both he and Scorpius were thrilled about. In fact Scorpius hadn’t stopped congratulating his best friend and was going all out to show his support, hence the argument which took place that very morning.

“You’re not wearing the freaking onesie to the game!” Albus exclaimed at Scorpius, who was sporting a green and grey onesie Molly Weasley had swiftly made for Albus when he got the spot on the team. On the back it had ‘POTTER’ written in bold letters above his player number ’04’. 

“Why not?” Scorpius replied, clearly upset at Albus’ reaction. 

“You’re the one who gave it to me! And now you won’t let me wear it,” he sulked. It was true, Albus had despised the garment and so had gifted it to Scorpius, knowing his friend would adore it.

“I didn’t expect you to wear in public!”

After several minutes of bickering, they came to a compromise. Scorpius could wear the onesie, but he had to wear his cloak over the top. 

“UGH! Fine,” was Scorpius’s response to this idea.

But it seemed that an hour later, when they were walking through the corridors to go to the game, Scorpius had decided that the compromise wasn’t enough in his favour, and sure enough whipped the cloak off and left it in a heap on the corridor floor.

Albus was too distracted by nerves to object to this, although the look on his face did show that he was clearly embarrassed by Scorpius’s actions. 

Scorpius was ‘a little more’ enthusiastic, dancing about the corridors, hollering fellow student’s names, asking them how they think the game will go. It was the rare moments like these, that Scorpius actually had some sort of confidence about him and Albus couldn’t help but feel proud because so often the blond’s anxiety prevented him from talking to people outside their immediate group of friends.

Albus was starting to smile fondly at his friend when Ed caught up with them, along with Dylan, who was also on the team as a chaser.

“Hey guys!” Dylan said excitedly, a beaming Ed beside him. 

Albus couldn’t help but wonder if he was the only one who experienced anxiety before games. 

“HEY DYLAN! HI EDDY!” Scorpius shouted, a little too excitedly. 

The two chuckled.

“Where’s Isaac?” Scorpius asked curiously, looking around. Isaac wasn’t on the team either, so Scorpius had assumed that they could sit together, cheering on Slytherin. 

“I think he’s going with his girlfriend?” Dylan said, turning his head to Ed for confirmation.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Girlfriend?” Albus asked, the new information distracting him from his worries.

“Yeah, some Hufflepuff chick,” Dylan replied.

“Seriously? Isaac with a Hufflepuff?” Ed chuckled.

“It defies all logic!” Scorpius agreed.

“I don’t know, he has been acting a little differently recently…” Dylan added in.

“Well I never thought I’d see the day,” Albus said.

“The day what?” Ed asked curiously.

“A Slytherin with a Hufflepuff!”

They continued to chat back and forth until one of the other chasers passed by and reminded Ed that the game started in 20 minutes. All the players began to make their way to the locker room, for a final pep talk. Albus quickly said goodbye to Scorpius, who wished his friends luck before watching them all hurry away. 

Despite being left alone, Scorpius’ enthusiasm didn’t waver and he continued to greet people energetically, he waved and smiled at everyone he walked past until he heard a deep voice behind him. 

“Son.”

Scorpius put one foot in front of the other, swivelled around in a half turn, and pointed two finger guns at his father, complete with a nod.

“Draco!” he called sassily. 

The older Malfoy looked entirely unimpressed and suddenly Scorpius seemed to realise who he was actually talking too. The lack of a smile on Draco’s face dulled Scorpius’ confidence and he suddenly felt self-conscious, he shifted to wrap his arms around his chest.

“Uh hi Dad. What’s up?” he asked in embarrassment.

“We need to have serious talk Scorpius,” Draco said sternly.

Scorpius couldn’t help but feel slightly smug at the fact his father had to tilt his head up at him in order to make eye contact, this fact seemed to reinstate some of his previous confidence.

“Do we though?” he asked cheekily, almost questioning his father’s authority.

Draco sighed.

“I have to go away for a few months, which means I won’t be home for Easter-”

“What about my wizard’s chess tournament? It’s next month. Will you be here for that?” Scorpius asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry, no. I leave next week," Draco said firmly.

“Oh. Where are you going?” Scorpius asked, the disappointment evident in his voice.

“America. Something to do with the ministry.” 

“Well why did you come here to tell me, why couldn’t you send an owl?” Scorpius snapped coldly, clearly upset.

“Because I was coming here anyway, to watch Albus’ game”

“I see. You came all this way to see my friend’s game, but not to see your own son play chess?” Scorpius accused.

“You know it’s not like that son,” Draco sighed. “I’m away for your chess.”

“BUT YOU NEVER FUCKING COME!” Scorpius shouted at his father. “Just admit it. You prefer Albus to me!”

Draco was taken aback by Scorpius’s harsh comment, and replied with something he instantly regretted.

“Well why wouldn’t I? You are a pathetic excuse for a son.”

“I HATE YOU!” It was all Scorpius could say, before picking his cloak back off of the floor and covering himself up, now conscious of how ridiculous he looked. 

+++

It was midway through the game, Slytherin verses Ravenclaw and Slytherin was in the lead with 60 points, whilst Ravenclaw had only scored once and Scorpius was fairly sure that Ed had let that one in on purpose, so that the blue house didn’t lose all their pride. Scorpius was sat alone, which was doing nothing to help bring him out of his sulk. His father’s words were echoing around his head and he couldn’t look at Draco without wanting to cry. He knew his father was just stressed from work and hadn’t meant what he’d said, but that didn’t change the fact that Draco’s words had attacked one of his largest insecurities. 

He pulled his cloak around himself tightly in order to battle against the icy wind that was blowing furiously. Despite his best efforts he was really struggling to focus on the game, his eyes kept drifting over towards where his father was sat, the man was scribbling on a piece of parchment. Scorpius scowled, Draco clearly had no qualms about their previous exchange and instead of checking on Scorpius or even watching the game, he was bloody working. Just like he always is, Scorpius thought.

Meanwhile, on the field, Ed had paused the game, and started to call Albus over. 

“I think I need to call out the reserve beater, you’re not doing so well…today," Ed told him carefully. The happy look on Albus’ face faltered.

“I swear I’ll do better. Just give me another chance; I think I’ve got it now. Please Ed?” Albus begged. 

Quidditch was one of the only things that Albus had in common with his father, besides his looks and he would never forget the look on Harry’s face when he told him he’d made the house team.

“Are you sure? I know what it feels like to have a bad day, someone could get hurt,” Ed questioned.

“But you don’t. Do you? You’ve had offers from professional teams!” Albus said in a strop. He was right, Ed had started receiving some pretty serious offers from some pretty decent teams back in his fourth year, but he insisted that he wanted to finish his education first.

Albus flew away on his broom, getting into the position to carry on playing. Rose, who was one of the Ravenclaw chasers, sighed and raised her eyebrows as Albus’ behaviour.

The game continued and a bludger began hurtling towards Dylan. Determined to prove Ed wrong, Albus swerved in and hit the bludger with confidence, only to watch as it went hurtling into the stands. Albus and everyone watched in complete horror as it collided with a certain pale blond Malfoy’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAH DAH DAHHHHHH
> 
> Sorry for the cliff-hanger, the next chapter will be out on Wednesday. If you enjoyed this one please let us know in the comments or leave kudos (only if you want to though). Thanks again for reading, we really hope you're enjoying the story so far!


	4. Sherbet Lemon?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sherbet Lemon?” she asked, reaching for the pot Dumbledore had always kept on his desk. Rose and Scorpius looked at her in slight disbelief, somewhat confused as to why the headmistress was offering them sweets at this time.
> 
> “It has come to my attention-" she began, before attempting to choose her words more carefully. 
> 
> “I-I mean I-I’ve discovered that-" she stuttered.
> 
> Rose and Scorpius glanced at each other. Witnessing this transition of eye contact, McGonagall bit her lip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor warning for some bad language.

Silence fell upon the entire stadium.

“Oh,” Ed said quietly.

“Shit,” Albus added, gaping in horror at what had just happened, his gaze shifted over to Scorpius. It was hard to tell how the fifth year was reacting because all he seemed to be doing was staring blankly up at the rows of seats higher than him, watching everyone crowd around his father. Who had collapsed onto the floor.

“It’s ok Albus. I don’t think there’s any blood,” Ed said hesitantly, trying to reassure the shaking boy. The fifth year knew his Captain was trying to calm him down but he could detect the blatant uncertainty in the older boy’s voice.

“That doesn’t mean shit! And you know it!” Albus shouted.

“Albus. Please, it’s okay," Ed said, trying desperately to calm the angry beater, but both boys knew something was very wrong.

“Go find Scorpius,” Ed suggested, his eyes scanning the crowd for the younger Malfoy. Albus shook his head. 

Rose, who had been listening close by, leapt into action, how could she possibly have forgotten about poor Scorpius. She quickly located him in the stands and rushed towards him.

The Ravenclaw girl flew across the pitch, her curly black hair gleaming in the sunlight, towards where Scorpius was still staring emotionlessly at the panicked crowd surrounding Draco. She hastily landed and dismounted her broom.

“Scorpius,” she said softly, he ignored her.

“Scorp!” she said a little louder, still nothing.

“SCORPIUS FUCKING LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW!” she shouted, every bit her mother. 

Scorpius jumped and turned to face her however, he still said nothing.

Rose sighed, from the corner of her eye she saw Draco being levitated and carried back up to the school. 

Knowing that it was useless to stay here, she gently took Scorpius’ arm. 

“I think they’re taking him to the hospital wing, why don’t we meet them there?”

Scorpius nodded slowly and began to shakily rise out of his seat. Rose took has hand and squeezed it as the two made their way up to the castle.

Meanwhile Ed was still trying to persuade Albus that he wasn’t necessarily a murderer just yet. 

“Look before you go handing yourself over to the court, why don’t we go and see what’s happening down there?” Ed said, somewhat exasperated with Albus’ dramatics.

Albus nodded and the two boys flew down to the ground, McGonagall came rushing over.

Noting Albus’ panicked state, she decided to address her nephew Ed.

“Take him up to the hospital wing,” she said calmly, Ed and Albus began to ask her for information but before the words were out of their mouths, she had apparated to the hospital wing.

Sighing, the two boys began the trek back up to the school.

\----

Twenty minutes later Rose and Scorpius arrived at the entrance to the hospital wing, where they were greeted by a grim faced McGonagall. The Headmistress was pale and Rose could have sworn the old woman’s hands were shaking.

“I think you’d better come with me,” she said quietly.

Scorpius turned to look at Rose, his face filled with horror. It was apparent to Rose that her friend had also noticed McGonagall’s nervousness and it seemed to have sent him into a new level of panic.

“I-I’m sure he’s fine,” Rose stuttered, trying to reassure her friend. Scorpius’ eyes watered and he suddenly burst into tears. Rose looked at McGonagall, hoping she might be able to offer some words of reassurance but the older woman remained silent, clearly unable to offer any positive news. 

Embarrassed by his emotional outburst, Scorpius attempted to mask his sobs with coughs, which only resulted in him choking on his sobs. Rose placed a comforting hand on his back.

“Mr Malfoy there is never any shame in tears,” McGonagall said quietly. “Please don’t hurt yourself by trying to stop them from falling.”

Rose sent the older woman a grateful half smile and slowly the two students followed the headmistress to her office.

Upon arriving, McGonagall gestured for the two students to take a seat. She opened her mouth as if to speak but suddenly found herself unable to speak, the sight of Scorpius’ tear stained face was too much to deal with. She turned away momentarily, composing herself so she would be able to deliver such difficult news. Taking a deep breath she turned back around to face the boy who’s world was about to fall apart once again. 

“Sherbet Lemon?” she asked, reaching for the pot Dumbledore had always kept on his desk. Rose and Scorpius looked at her in slight disbelief, somewhat confused as to why the headmistress was offering them sweets at this time.

“It has come to my attention-“ she began, before attempting to choose her words more carefully. 

“I-I mean I-I’ve discovered that-" she stuttered.

Rose and Scorpius glanced at each other. Witnessing this transition of eye contact, McGonagall bit her lip.

“What I’m trying to say is I’ve examined Malfoy- I mean Draco- I mean your Father-” she said shakily, speaking quickly and almost frantically now, stumbling over how to refer to her former student.

Scorpius looked at her with pleading eyes and she knew she had to come out and say it.

“I’m afraid your father sustained a severe head injury,” she said slowly.

“Well we know that!” Rose snapped harshly, she was quickly losing patience with her Headmistress. 

McGonagall glanced at the daughter of her two previous students and sighed.

“What I’m trying to say Scorpius, is that I’m afraid your Father has passed away”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the end of Draco *cries forever*  
> In case anyone was wondering that was why we have the major charcter death warning attached to this story, so if you're worried about any of the other characters dying don't be however, this certainly isn't the end of the angst, it all goes very much downhill form here!  
> Thanks again for reading, please leave kudos or comments with any feedback, we'd really appreciate it.  
> See you on Saturday for the next update!


	5. 'Luctus' is latin for grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Scorp is he going to be okay?” Albus asked, already knowing the answer.  
> “He’s dead,” Scorpius whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning for mentions of vomit.

Albus and Ed were sat in the hospital wing, awaiting news on Draco.

“Whatever happens Al, you need to remember it was an accident,” Ed said gently, reaching a hand out and placing it comfortingly on Albus’ leg. 

Albus glanced down at Ed’s fingers and smiled a little to himself, he was about to ask Ed about how he got the small scar on his hand, when Scorpius burst through the hospital wing doors, followed closely by Rose and McGonagall. 

Albus watched as his friend hurried over to the curtains surrounding Draco’s body. Madame Pomphrey attempted to stop the blond from stepping around them, saying something about it being too distressing, but McGonagall silenced her with a raise of her palm and signalled for her to let him pass. 

Everyone stared at the spot where Scorpius had just disappeared into the closed of section, waiting with baited breath. However, Scorpius made no noise and they were starting to wonder if somehow he’d managed to disappear entirely, when he remerged. 

They all stared at Scorpius as he silently walked over to Albus. 

“Scorp is he going to be okay?” Albus asked, already knowing the answer.

“He’s dead,” Scorpius whispered. 

Ed swore under his breath and watched Albus’ eyes widen in horror. The dark brown haired boy then proceeded to burst into hysterical tears and fall into Scorpius, who jumped and hastily wrapped his arms around the shorter boy. 

“It’ll be okay,” Scorpius choked, and Ed could tell the blond was attempting to hold it together for Albus’ sake, he couldn’t help but feel angry that it was the recently orphaned Scorpius who was having to hold back tears in order to comfort his own father’s killer. He was about to attempt to get Albus of Scorpius, when yet another pair burst into the hospital wing; it was none other than Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

Harry swiftly walked over to McGonagall who whispered something to him, Harry grimaced and approached Scorpius and Albus and put his hands on both of their shoulders, giving a very pale Scorpius a look of sympathy. 

Ginny was stood next to Rose, watching the scene before her. She realised that having to comfort Albus probably wasn’t what Scorpius needed right now. She looked at McGonagall, and the Headmistress nodded in response, showing that she agreed with Ginny’s line of thought. Slowly the red head took her son aside, away from earshot of the others.

“I know you feel really bad right now. And we don’t blame you for that, or for what happened. It was accident, and I promise we will get the help you need, but right now…” the Mother said softly, “Right now you need to help Scorpius. He lost his father today, and he has no family left. You need to be there for him in this moment.”

Albus nodded, tears still streaming from his eyes. He slowly walked back over to stand beside his father and best friend. Ginny hoped that Albus would take heed of the advice she had given him, unfortunately this did not prove to be the case.

Harry was gently talking to Scorpius, trying to coax the boy into talking as he had once again gone silent. Desperate for attention and for his father to console him, Albus opened his mouth and coughed, Harry ignored him.

“Dad,” Albus said. 

He was once again ignored. 

He spoke again, this time more loudly calling out to Harry. Harry continued to blank him.

Albus stuck out his lip, giving him the appearance of a young child who wasn’t getting his way. 

“Dad!” he said loudly, Harry turned to Albus in exasperation. 

“What?”

“Am I going to go to Azkaban?” he asked, his voice childish.

All the adults began to answer simultaneously, but they were all interrupted. 

“Need to feed the cat,” Scorpius said. 

It was the first thing he’d said for about half an hour.

“Cat?” Harry asked.

“Yes …cat.” 

“What cat?” Albus asked in confusion.

“Luctus,” Scorpius replied, as if the answer were obvious.

“Who in merlin’s name is Luctus?” McGonagall questioned.

“The cat….Luctus”

“What cat?” asked everyone, apart from Scorpius himself.

“My dad’s cat,” he responded.

Everyone exchanged somewhat relieved looks; many of them had been assuming that the boy had gone mad.

“Father got him when Mum died. So that he wasn’t lonely when I was at school,” Scorpius told them. 

“But now he’s dead too. So Luctus needs to be fed,” he continued. 

“He likes tuna, but only a specific brand, we have it at the house but obviously he can’t have too much or he’ll get fat and nobody wants to be fat. Or it might make him throw up and then I suppose he wouldn’t be fat but he’ll eat something in the cupboards. He’s a very clever cat you see, he can get into stuff. One time he managed to get into the fridge, now I don’t know how, but he ate everything in there and gained lots of weight and threw up a lot and that was awful and-" he rambled, eventually Harry took sympathy on the young boy and cut him off.

“Scorpius it’s okay we can go and get the cat,” he said, glancing worriedly at Ginny, perhaps they’d spoken to soon and Scorpius actually had gone round the bend.

Moments later, Scorpius and Harry apparated into the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor, Harry looked around, not much had changed since his last visit here all those years ago. 

“Um so where is Luctus?” Harry asked, studying the room some more, looking for the cat, Scorpius shrugged and walked up the staircase.

Harry followed in curiosity, still somewhat unsure about the cat’s existence. 

He watched as Scorpius entered one of the many doors in the corridor and then proceeded to enter behind him. Harry sighed in relief upon seeing Scorpius sat on the bed, with what was thankfully a very real cat.

Scorpius looked up as Harry entered the room. Harry gave the boy a sad smile.

“Hermione used to have cat a lot like that one,” Harry said, taking in the fat ginger cat in Scorpius’ lap.

Scorpius nodded slowly. 

“Yeah I think it’s one of her kittens,” he said quietly.

“Do you want to take him back to school?” Harry asked, Scorpius nodded.

“Can I rename him?” he asked, as if asking for Harry’s blessing.

“Why?” Harry asked curiously, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Luctus is Latin for grief, I think Dad thought it would be poetic or something,” Scorpius said sadly, his voice breaking at the end of his sentence.

Harry sighed before answering. 

“Yeah I think that would be fine Scorp,” he said, his voice full of sadness, his heart breaking for the fifth year, who was now crying into the cat’s fur.

‘How is he going to survive this one?’ He thought to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Scorpius! Our heart breaks for him every time we write this story. We are aware that Albus might seem somewhat out of character but that is because whilst this story can be read in the same timeline as Cursed Child, we aren't necessarily basing the characters' personalities on how they're portrayed in the play. Also Albus is grieving and everyone does that differently. Thanks again for reading, please leave any feedback or advice in the comments.


	6. "Duuuude"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Right so Albus do you want to say anything?” Ed asked, it had occurred to him that Albus was yet to apologise to the boy whose father he’d killed. 
> 
> Albus, oblivious to what Ed was hinting at, sighed loudly. 
> 
> “When’s the next pizza party?” He asked happily. 
> 
> Ed stared at him in total disbelief, his eyes filled with irritation.
> 
> Sensing that this was not what Ed had in mind, Albus tried again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No specific content warnings that we can think of, but please let us know if something does trigger you so we can add a warning.

After collecting a few more things and placing the newly named cat in a basket, Harry and Scorpius made their way back to Hogwarts, where Scorpius had insisted he wanted to stay. 

Upon their arrival McGonagall insisted that Scorpius at least stayed in Ed’s room, which was private because of reasons unbeknownst to Scorpius. After checking with Scorpius, she  
had also allowed Albus to join him, considering the fact that half of Hogwarts currently saw him as a murderer. 

After moving some of his stuff, or rather watching Ed and Harry move his stuff, Scorpius found himself sat on a spare bed in Ed’s room, which had been transfigured by McGonagall herself. It was the first time since the hospital wing that Scorpius and Albus had been in the same room and with the absence of any adults, Ed had taken on the role of mediator.

“Right so Albus do you want to say anything?” Ed asked, it had occurred to him that Albus was yet to apologise to the boy whose father he’d killed. 

Albus, oblivious to what Ed was hinting at, sighed loudly. 

“When’s the next pizza party?” He asked happily. 

Ed stared at him in total disbelief, his eyes filled with irritation.

Sensing that this was not what Ed had in mind, Albus tried again. 

“Ohh” Said Albus, attempting to wink at Ed as if the two had some sort of understanding.

“Do you think it would be wrong for me to attend the funeral?” He asked his voice void of sensitivity.

Ed actually huffed in annoyance and turned to Scorpius, his expression softening. 

“Do you want anything to eat?” He asked the blond boy directly.

Scorpius shook his head.

Albus, wrongly assuming that Ed’s question had been addressed to both of them, spoke up. 

“Well I’m quite hungry!” He said.

Ed slowly turned to face Albus, trying very hard not to scream at the younger boy.

“Fine” he said through gritted teeth. 

“I’ll go and get us something”. 

He began to leave and sighed in exasperation as Albus began to follow. 

“Great I’ll come too!” Said the eager brown haired boy. Ed rolled his eyes and the two left for the kitchens.

The pair walked through the corridors, knowing the way to the kitchens off by heart, given the countless times they had become a bit peckish during the night. In fact it was  
because of this route that Albus and Scorpius had first met Ed. 

*FLASHBACK*

_“Duuude” a second year Albus whined, trying to sound husky and American, but somehow failing tremendously at both. The 13 year old was currently going through something of an ‘emo’ phase, and had based his new voice off of the numerous tacky American films he had watched over the summer._

_Scorpius gave no answer._

_“Duuuuuuude?” he attempted again._

_Still no reply._

_“I’m so freaking hungry dude!”_

_“Me too, I guess” Scorpius replied, his own voice sounding vaguely American, a result of all the time spent with Albus._

_Albus grinned and then quickly frowned, not wanting to appear ‘happy’, having read that it was not a regular emotion amongst emos._

_Scorpius frowned too._

_“Well what do you want me to do about it?” he asked, pushing his new ‘hipster’ empty glasses frames up his nose. He had seen the style in a muggle magazine. He had also noticed a man wearing earrings and so had resolved to pierce his ears. However, he fainted as soon as Albus stuck the needle through his ear and had flat out refused to let his friend anywhere near the left one, this left him with only the one ear pierced, the small hole was currently filled with a long feathery earring._

_“Dudeeee” Albus whined loudly._

_“Oh shut him up Scorp” Said Beau, another second year, he was a very large boy who Scorpius was yet to see not wearing a hat._

_Scorpius rolled his eyes and returned to his book of poems. Ed, who had been listening from the other side of the common room, decided to approach the two younger boys._

_“If you’re that hungry follow me” he whispered, before walking out the common room._

_Scorpius and Albus exchanged eye contact, before following after him._

_“Wait for me!” Scorpius called after Albus, who had managed to catch up with Ed._

_“I have very small legs!”_

_It was true, much to his own dismay Scorpius was right; he was one of the shortest students at Hogwarts, even little Wendy Thompson in first year was taller than him._

_Eventually, after much huffing and puffing, he caught up with the older boys and they all made their way down another corridor._

_“Where are we?” Albus asked as Ed stopped outside a portrait of a woman with a pear._

_Ed ignored the question and turned to face the two smaller boys._

_“Now if I show you what’s in here, you have to do something for me” He said._

_Scorpius raised an eyebrow “What?” He asked curiously._

_“I want in on your little business” Ed said firmly._

_Scorpius and Albus gasped._

_“H-how do you know about that?” Albus spluttered in outrage._

_“I have my secrets, same as you” Ed smirked, winking at Scorpius who blushed and had to duck his head._

_Once he had recovered, Scorpius glanced at Albus and the pair nodded at one another._

_Ordinarily they would have contemplated the idea for longer, but in this instance both boys were far too intrigued about where Ed had taken them._

_“Fine, if this place is worthy, you can be a seller for Subrocs!”_

_Ed grinned and leant over, past Scorpius, to tickle the pear._

_The door to the kitchens swung open, and the two second year’s mouths dropped open in amazement at the sight before them._

*END OF FLASHCACK*

A lot had changed since their second year, for starters their appearances. Fortunately Albus had grown out of his emo phase quite quickly, he had grown a few inches and stopped wearing eyeliner. His hair resembled his fathers, but with the help of sleakeasys hair potion he managed to tame its wildness, well mostly. Whilst alike Harry’s in volume, Albus’ hair was slightly more ginger than his father’s, especially during the summer, when his Weasley heritage became particularly noticeable. Whilst Albus was by no means fat, he was stockier than he had been in his younger years. He had stopped going through phases and now his style was fairly plain and lacked originality. He really only wore straight cut jeans and t-shirts outside of school hours.

Scorpius had also grown a lot, going from the shortest in the school to the tallest, all in the space of a few months; to this day nobody was quite sure how he’d managed it. Scorpius had broadened ever so slightly, but he was still very slim, he even had slightly defined abs. Whilst Albus had stopped wearing makeup, Scorpius had taken a rather large interest in nail varnish and highlighter. His nails were always covered in either colourful or glittery nail polish, his favourite being a lilac, shiny one. He also liked to apply highlighter to his prominent cheekbones, which he enchanted to reflect his mood, for example, blue for sadness and pink for embarrassment. Like the Malfoys before him, Scorpius’ hair was practically white, but with a hint of lilac. He had replaced his empty frames with flower crowns, many of which he made himself. His style was far more interesting than Albus’ he liked to cover his long legs with very tight skinny jeans that made boys and girls envious of his long, slim legs, and on his upper half he liked to wear baggy jumpers to keep him warm all year round as he was often cold, and of course there was his fabulous onesie collection.

Albus chuckled as he thought of his younger self, and Ed gave him a strange look.

“What?” Albus asked indignantly.

“I can’t believe you’re laughing at a time like this” Ed replied.

“I’m just trying to cheer myself up” Albus snapped, as he accepted food from the houselves. 

Ed scowled. 

“You need to get over your own problems mate and open your eyes; the sweetest person we know has just lost his only parent!” 

Albus looked away, guilt flooding across his features; he slowly picked up a basket of cinnamon rolls, knowing they were Scorpius’ favourite.

Ed sighed, and tried to be more sympathetic towards his friend. 

“Look I get that this is hard for you, but there’s a boy upstairs who need our help, so if you need to talk about killing someone come and see me, don’t bring it up with him” Ed said, patting Albus on the back as they made their way back up to Ed’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry we couldn't resist making Scorpius into a typical flower child. Please remember that although Albus comes across as a dick it is because he is coming to terms with something major, whilst that doesn't excuse his behaviour it does provide an explanation. If you enjoyed or have and feedback or advice please leave kudos and comments!


	7. Well I'm a murderer so fuck your problems!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major content warnings for this chapter:  
> Nightmares  
> Brief mention/Non-graphic description of past self harm  
> Not eating/Hints at an eating disorder  
> Swearing  
> Heavy discussion of grief/Mental health  
> Hyperventilating/Panic  
> Anxiety
> 
> Please don't read this chapter if any of these things will trigger you! We'll put a summary of the chapter in the end notes so if you are concerned about reading this chapter for any reason please just skip it and read the end notes.

_Two weeks later-_

It had ben two weeks since the accident and Ed was starting to wonder when he was going to get his own room back, whilst looking after Scorpius wasn’t too much hassle, Albus was proving to be virtually intolerable. The fifth year always wanted to stay up talking and Ed could barely get a word in edgeways. The sixth year was also becoming increasingly concerned that having Scorpius and Albus together in one room was not beneficial for either party. For example, Albus was pretty unsympathetic about Scorpius’ recurring nightmares that left him sweaty and shaken up. Ed suspected that Albus was actually concerned about his friend but was trying to cope with his own guilt and grief by shutting the blond out. One side effect of these nightmares was the sleep singing had stopped; in fact Scorpius hadn’t sung any musical theatre songs in his sleep since his father’s death.

Speaking of Scorpius’ nightmares, the blond was currently tossing and turning in his bed, Ed approached the boy cautiously and began to shake him gently. 

“Scorp” he said quietly, but he failed to wake the blond. 

“Scorpius!” he said loudly.

The fifth year sat up suddenly, gasping for air and sweating. His hair was matted to his forehead and his eyes were open wide. Ed took in the distressed boy’s appearance and sighed, Scorpius had barely slept at all over the last two weeks and those close to him were becoming very concerned, the signs of his exhaustion were obvious, there were dark circles under his eyes, which were only emphasised by his pale skin that had become almost translucent. He had also been eating less however, many were unaware of how little he really had been eating as the majority of the food he was brought he would feed to his newly renamed cat, ‘Mouse’, when others weren’t looking.

Scorpius reached for his cat and cuddled him to his chest like a soft toy. Ed reached over and ran his fingers through Scorpius’ hair, gently pulling it away from his clammy forehead. 

“What time is it?” Scorpius asked croakily. Ed glanced at his watch before replying.

“Two pm, you were asleep for a few hours this time” He replied.

Scorpius closed his eyes and sighed, he was exhausted.

“Where’s Al?” Scorpius asked miserably, Ed sighed.

“He’s out practicing Quidditch” He replied quietly.

Scorpius winced at the mention of the sport.

Ed was about to offer Scorpius the food that Rose had brought up earlier, when the door sprung open to reveal a very muddy looking Albus, dressed in his Quidditch robes, he had clearly been out practicing alone again.

Scorpius flinched at the loud noise and upon seeing what Albus was wearing he buried himself under the covers trembling. Ed glared at Albus, he could hear Scorpius beginning to hyperventilate and so he knelt down next to him.

“Scorp you need to breathe with me” He said, his voice calm and steady. Scorpius whimpered.

“Scorpius come on” Ed said, knowing that if he didn’t calm the blond soon he would go into a full blown panic attack. Fortunately, Scorpius managed to get his anxiety under control and Ed stood up.

“Outside now!” He said to Albus through gritted teeth.

Albus grimaced and made his way back outside. Ed turned back to Scorpius, who was now lying with his eyes closed on the bed, but Ed knew he was still awake.

“Eat as much of that as you can” He said calmly, gesturing towards the tray that Rose had placed on the bedside table. Scorpius nodded but Ed wasn’t sure the blond had even remotely registered what he’d said.

Ed patted him on the shoulder before going after Albus, closing the door behind him. 

He looked at Albus, the exasperation clear in his expression.

“Was it the robes?” Albus asked quietly.

Ed could see that the younger boy felt guilty for causing his best friend distress so he just nodded.

Albus sighed and bit his lip.

“I should probably say something” he said after thinking to himself for a moment.

He went to walk back inside but Ed coughed to stop him.

Albus looked down at his mud stained robes.

“I’ll go change” Albus muttered, walking away slowly. 

Part of Ed wanted to let Albus go and return to Scorpius, but he knew that the blond would probably rather eat alone, something that Ed had come to realise over the past two weeks. So instead he waited outside the door for Albus to return.

\---

Scorpius took advantage of his solitude and hastily fed a significant amount of his food to Mouse, making sure to avoid the cinnamon rolls as he knew from past experiences that they upset the cat’s stomach.

He had managed to dispose of half his meal when the dormitory door swung open, and a freshly changed Albus, followed by Ed, entered the room. 

Ed immediately came over and inspected the plate to see how much Scorpius had eaten. Clearly he was satisfied because he grinned at Scorpius as if to congratulate him. The blond couldn’t help but feel bad for deceiving the older boy but he didn’t want to be more of a burden by exposing the truth.

Albus glanced at the plate and was surprised to see that there was a cinnamon roll on the plate. 

“I thought you loved cinnamon rolls?” He asked, looking at his friend in confusion.

“They make him- I mean m-me feel sick” Scorpius stuttered, realising his mistake mid-sentence, he glanced at his friends to see if they’d noticed but luckily the reference to Mouse seemed to have gone over their heads.

“Sick?” Albus asked, his voice laced with concern. 

Scorpius nodded hesitantly.

“I’m sure you’ll feel more up to sugar soon” Ed said comfortingly, before turning away and beginning to pack his transfiguration books into a bag.

Albus watched the older boy with curiosity as he got ready to leave.

“Are you going somewhere?” He asked.

Ed nodded and muttered something about needing to study, he closed his satchel and left but not before muttering something to Albus. 

“Talk to him”.

Albus sat tentatively on the edge of Scorpius’s bed, in an almost motherly way, he waited for the door to close to signal that Ed has left the room, before speaking. 

“Soooo” he said somewhat awkwardly.

“Sooooo, what?” Scorpius replied bluntly, mimicking Albus.

“So, how are you?” 

Scorpius was surprised by Albus’ sudden desire to talk, as lately all the other boy had wanted to do was lament in his misery. He decided to take the opportunity to get things of his chest.

He took a deep breath before beginning. 

“Well, honestly everything’s shit, I haven’t slept properly in weeks, I feel sick all the fucking time so I can’t eat and I can’t talk to anyone about that, so I just feed it all to Mouse, who’s fucking obese now and all I want is for things to go back to normal but I can’t even get out of bed for five fucking seconds without someone forcing me to get back because apparently I’m unstable and depressed! But I don’t need them because I can be depressed all by myself thank you very much and yesterday Rose asked to see my bloody arms because they think I might try to hurt myself, even though I tried that after Mum died and I didn’t like it because it hurt and I don’t like blood and there was so much blood and it got all over my sheets even though the cut wasn’t even that deep! And my dad came in and started yelling so I said it was Luctus, who names a cat after fucking grief anyway? Especially when your wife has just died! And honestly I thought I loved Mum more than Dad but now he’s gone and it fucking hurts!”

Scorpius was panting in exhaustion at the end of his monologue and looked at Albus in shock, as if he had surprised himself with his sudden outburst of emotion. He had stood up at some point during his speech and so was now on the same level as his friend, so he could clearly see the brown haired boy’s face, which looked as shocked as he felt by the outburst.

Albus gulped, he could hardly believe that someone as seemingly exhausted as Scorpius could have the energy to rant like that. He’d known about the self-harm attempt back in Scorpius’ third year because the blond had confided in him about in late one night. A thousand thoughts were hurtling through Albus’ mind and he tried to control them by focusing on just one, unfortunately this was not the thought telling him to console or talk to his friend.

Suddenly, to Scorpius’s surprise, Albus’ face seemed to become filled with anger.

“Yeah! Well I’m a murderer so fuck your problems!” He shouted, before bursting into tears and storming out the room, slamming the door so hard that Scorpius was afraid it might come off its hinges. He slowly sunk back down his bed and he was still shaking half an hour later, when Rose and Ed arrived.

The pair exchanged concerned looks upon finding Scorpius in such a state.

Rose hesitantly sat down beside the blond and carefully took his jittery, shaking hands into her own, rubbing them soothingly.

“Where’s Al?” Ed huffed.

“Ed” Rose muttered, shooting the sixth year a look, as if to tell him to calm down.

“Someone is supposed to be here at all times” Ed growled.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, this was exactly what he had been referring to earlier, the fact that he was being treated like a child.

“I don’t need a babysitter” he snapped.

A hurt look appeared on Ed’s face and he repeated his previous question more calmly, as if merely inquiring randomly to the Slytherin’s whereabouts.

“Probably of murdering someone else’s Dad” Scorpius scowled.

Ed and Rose gasped at Scorpius’ cruel comment.

“He didn’t mean to do that Scorp!” Rose scolded, immediately jumping to her cousin’s defence “And he clearly feels awful about it!”

“No shit” Scorpius muttered.

“Look he really didn’t mean to do it Scorp” Ed said quietly, attempting a gentler approach.

“Try telling him that” Scorpius sighed, his whole body deflating from exhaustion; he closed his eyes and rested his head on Rose’s shoulder.

All he wanted was to talk to someone and have them listen; he had hoped that person would be his best friend. Then a horrible thought crossed his mind, if Albus didn’t want to listen then maybe nobody did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary for those who didn't read it: Scorpius has a nightmare and Ed comforts him, Albus then arrives in quidditch robes, causing Scorpius to almost have a panic attack. Albus leaves, changes and returns. Albus and Scorpius then have a conversation in which Scorpius attempts to open up to Albus about how much he is struggling but Albus, in his own sate of grief, lashes out at his friend, leaving Scorpius feeling very alone.
> 
> Thank you all for reading this very angsty chapter! If you have any advice or feedback please, please, please leave a comment and kudos! We love everyone who reads this and engages with it!


	8. Puking Pastels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Graphic descriptions of vomiting and beginnings of an eating disorder. (Also swearing)

_-The next day- ___

__Following the conversation about not needing a babysitter, Scorpius decided he would prefer to return to his own dormitory. He had hoped that this would prevent Ed from breathing down his neck all the time, but the older boy liked to check up on him at regular intervals._ _

__Along with moving back to his normal bed, Scorpius had also requested to start attending lessons but the Headmistress and Madame Pomfrey had decided that he needed a few days to adjust to being back in his usual dormitory before he went back to class._ _

__Therefore, when he woke up Monday morning he was unsurprised to find the dormitory empty, it was 10am and he knew that everyone would be in class._ _

__Something that did surprise Scorpius, was the realisation that for the first time in weeks he actually felt hungry, the sick feeling in his stomach had finally passed and he found himself somewhat relieved. He immediately set about trying to find something to eat and after a few minutes of scrounging, he came across the Subrocs supply of sweets, he and Albus had learned early on in their business that selling confectionary was an easy way to make money, especially when selling to those who were too young to attend Hogsmede trips and buy their own._ _

__Grinning at his find, he took the large bag and sat cross legged on his bed, placing the bag between his onesie clad legs._ _

___‘Chocolate frogs’ _he thought _‘My favourite!’ ______ _

______At first, he resolved to only eat six of the chocolate sweets, but after tasting the treat, two weeks’ worth of starvation manifested within him, and twenty minutes later he was staring at an empty bag that had previously held a plethora of packets containing different sweets from fizzing whizzbees to Bertie bots every flavour beans, he had also consumed a few muggle sweets such as jelly babies and skittles. After stuffing himself with the abundance of candies he found himself feeling very nauseous._ _ _ _ _ _

______Usually he had a high tolerance for sugar and was known for eating all his Halloween candy in one night, but considering the quantity he had consumed combined with two weeks of eating the bare minimum, he realised that a stomach ache was probably justified._ _ _ _ _ _

______As his stomach cramped he realised that vomiting was imminent and so rushed to the bathroom, just as Albus entered the dorm._ _ _ _ _ _

______The other Slytherin had decided to come and check on his friend, he had felt awful ever since yesterday and wanted to try and make amends, therefore he had hurried out of charms and raced to the dormitories as soon as break began._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus took in the colourful wrappers, littered all over Scorpius’ bed, he was shocked by how many there were and so slowly made his way into the bathroom to check on his friend._ _ _ _ _ _

______He knocked on the door, despite the fact it was already open, in order to get Scorpius’ attention._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly._ _ _ _ _ _

______His question was answered by the sound of Scorpius retching, followed by the sound of his stomach contents hitting the bottom of the white, porcelain toilet bowl._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Sorry, stupid question” He said guiltily._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius snorted, which seemed to trigger another round of puking._ _ _ _ _ _

______Finally, there was nothing left in his stomach and so he stood up shakily, gripping on to the sink and staring at his pale reflection in the grubby mirror._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Have you been cleaning in here?” He asked._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Sorry?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“I asked if you’d cleaned the fucking bathroom while I was away” Scorpius scowled._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus rolled his eyes at Scorpius, who was now glancing around the room, searching for an inexistent mess._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Scorp the house elves have cleaned the room” Albus sighed, trying to reassure his friend, but he knew from previous experiences that his comments would have no impact on the blond, who was something of a neat freak._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius looked miserably at Albus, realising that his comments about cleanliness had been somewhat harsh._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Sorry” he muttered, before walking back into the bedroom and beginning to clean up the wrappers._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Did you seriously eat all of those?” Albus asked in disbelief._ _ _ _ _ _

______The guilty look that Scorpius sent him was answer in itself._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You realise that there was three months work of confectionary products in that bag Scorp! They didn’t belong to you, they belonged to our company” Albus said, his tone not dissimilar to that of an annoyed teacher._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Please don’t tell Ed” Scorpius whispered, as if he’d heard nothing Albus had said._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus sighed._ _ _ _ _ _

______“This is all my fault isn’t it?” He said, sounding almost selfish in his own self-deprecation._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius rolled his eyes and turned to face Albus. He shook his head._ _ _ _ _ _

______“No. Because believe it or not Al, the world does not revolve around you” he snapped, his voice breaking slightly at the end._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus disregarded the change in Scorpius’ tone as a side effect of the fact that he had just been vomiting, he didn’t consider that Scorpius was actually upset by what he’d said._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I know not everything is about me” Albus said insistently “But I have a feeling this is”._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius breathed out slowly and sat on the bed._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Look, don’t worry it was an accident, I was hungry and I didn’t realise I’d eaten so much. I’ll replace the stock”._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus didn’t look completely satisfied by this answer, so Scorpius tried again._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You know how much I hate throwing up” he began “I’ll be really careful from now on not to do it again” he added._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus grinned._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Well I’ve got to go to lessons now, but we can hang out later yeah?” Albus asked his voice somewhat uncertain._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius tried to look eager as he nodded. Albus clearly believed his friend’s positive act, his smile broadened and he left._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius watched Albus leave and as soon as the door shut his smile vanished. Unbeknownst to Albus Scorpius had relished in the feeling of emptying everything inside him into the toilet. It had given him a sense of stability and control that he hadn’t felt since before his father’s death._ _ _ _ _ _

______Over the next few days Scorpius fell into something of a routine were pretty much the same. Eat, throw up, and cry. The only difference to the first time it had happened was Albus’ absence._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was now Thursday and he began his routine again however, to his dismay he found that after his eating spree at ten in the morning, he couldn’t throw up. The only thing that made him feel the slightest bit sick was the way that his stomach stuck out._ _ _ _ _ _

______Then he had an idea. A brilliant one, in his opinion._ _ _ _ _ _

______He dug through the Subrocs stock chest, looking for one product in particular. He grinned when he saw the bright purple packaging of puking pastels underneath a box of muggle magazines._ _ _ _ _ _

______He quickly stuffed two in his mouth as soon as his delicate hands could rip open the plastic that sealed the sweets._ _ _ _ _ _

______The effect was immediate and suddenly Scorpius realised where he was, he had to sprint to the bathroom, only just managing to lean over the sink in time before vomiting violently._ _ _ _ _ _

______After brushing his teeth, and cleaning out his mouth, he felt a lot better, the feeling of being bloated was gone and instead he felt the satisfying emptiness that he had grown to crave._ _ _ _ _ _

______He flopped on to his bed and closed his eyes; he lay there thinking for a while. After a while he realised he was shivering, he pushed the thought aside, assuming that his bedroom must be cold._ _ _ _ _ _

______Suddenly he had an idea._ _ _ _ _ _

______He grabbed a fluffy grey blanket which happened to match the grey rhino onesie he was wearing, before hurrying down to the common room. With the entirety of Slytherin house currently in lessons, Scorpius found himself in the unusual situation of having the entire space to himself. He approached the fire and was about to sit down in an arm chair when another idea occurred to him. He quickly cleared the coffee table and stretched out on it. His reasoning for doing so was that the coffee table was directly in front of the fire and so was very warm. He let out a content sigh and slowly drifted off to sleep, his long limbs sprawled out in a sort of star shape._ _ _ _ _ _

______Having been let out of his final class a few minutes early, Albus decided to check on Scorpius, upon entering the common room he frowned in confusion. He honestly couldn’t think of any logical reason as to why his best friend was lying on the same coffee table that he had whacked his head on only a few weeks ago._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Uh Scorp?” He asked loudly._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius jolted awake and looked around in confusion, upon seeing Albus he realised he’d fallen asleep._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Can I ask why you were asleep on the table that gave you that scar?” Albus asked, stroking the small scar, hidden beneath his friend’s slivery, fluffy hair._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Was cold” Scorpius mumbled, his voice filled with sleep._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Oh so the coffee table was the obvious answer to that problem” Albus chuckled._ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius gave him a small smile but made no movement to stand up._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Are you planning on getting up before everyone else gets back?” Albus asked._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Nope” Scorpius said adamantly, shaking his head._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus rolled his eyes and began attempting to drag Scorpius off the table. Unfortunately, Scorpius was refusing to cooperate. The blond clamped his hands firmly on to the table, in an effort to remain lying down in his current position._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Scorp!” Albus cried, as he struggled to get a good grip on his friend._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Al!” Scorp replied mockingly._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus managed to wrap his arms around Scorpius’ waist and lifted him off the table. Scorpius wrapped his legs around the brown haired boy and it was in this compromising position that Ed found them in, when he entered the common room seconds later._ _ _ _ _ _

______Albus and Scorpius’ heads whipped around to face the sandy haired sixth year._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Oh no don’t let me interrupt” Ed laughed._ _ _ _ _ _

______He proceeded to walk up to his room, leaving two spluttering fifth years behind him._ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave any feedback in the comments and kudos are always more than appreciated.


	9. Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That basic Hogsmede chapter that appears in any Harry Potter fanfic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for mentions of vomiting/purging and swearing.

-Two days later-

The sun shone through the window of the dormitory, waking Albus, who’s bed was closest to the door. It was a Hogsmeade day which usually meant that Albus and Scorpius would wake up early and leave together in order to avoid the rush of other students.

Albus rolled out of his bed, leaning on the bed frame and dresser, supporting his weight as he stood up. 

“Come on guys” He said loudly, clapping his hands together in an attempt to stir the others. He scanned his friends’ beds, looking to see who was awake. Eventually his eyes’ met a distinctive pair of blue ones, Scorpius’ eyes looked heavy and were encircled with big purple bags. 

“Oh good you’re up!” Albus cried enthusiastically. Scorpius just groaned in response.

“Did you get any sleep mate?” Isaac asked sympathetically from across the room.

“A little bit” Scorpius replied, referring to the one hour of sleep he had got in the early hours of the morning. 

“Are you sure you’re okay to come with us? You don’t look too good and you haven’t even gone back to lessons yet” Isak asked, his voice filled with worry.

Scorpius scowled.

“Of course I’m coming” He snapped, before walking into the bathroom, trying to avoid further questions.

“He’s lying” Beau muttered angrily. “The moron kept me up half the night crying like a girl” he added, whilst fixing his hat to ensure it sat on his head straight. 

The others glared at him. Beau was not a pleasant person, and also he was being very hypocritical. He was the one who usually kept them all up with his snoring and homophobic remarks.

Meanwhile in the bathroom Scorpius was standing in front of the mirror. The boy starring back at him was almost unrecognisable. The face of his reflection had dark bags beneath his eyes and he looked a bit gaunt. He had unzipped the top half of his onesie and tied the arms around his waist. Making it easy to inspect his hip bones. They were more prominent than they had been a month ago, and whilst Scorpius had always been slim he was pretty sure his stomach had stuck out a little more. Sighing, he walked back into the dorm to join the others, his chest still bare. 

“You look thinner” Dylan stated, directing his comment at the blond.

“He’s always been thin” Albus said, making sure it sounded like his comment was obvious.

“Not that thin…” Isaac interrupted.

Albus ignored him, pulling his grey pyjama shirt over his head and throwing it on the floor. 

Meanwhile, Scorpius had already got changed, hiding his body from the others, by wearing a faded navy, baggy jumper. His black skinny jeans were slightly loose around his waist, so he tucked the jumper in, just a little bit.

Ed entered the room, his chest bare, showing off his well-defined abs, his chest rock hard. His burgundy plaid pyjama bottoms perfectly compliment his tanned skin and Albus thought he looked like some sort of god. 

“So, when are we leaving?” he asked in his sweet Yorkshire accent, running a hand through his messy golden blond hair, his green eyes lingered on Scorpius, but his question aimed at the whole group.

“We’re meeting Flora by the entrance hall in fifteen minutes, so put a shirt on” Isaac told him, attempting to sound somewhat annoyed, but even he couldn’t help but admire Ed’s body.

“Or not” Albus murmured under his breath.

“I’m sorry? What did you say there?” Dylan teased his friend.

“Oh, I said that I think it’s quite warm outside, so, he doesn’t have to put a shirt on. You know, if he doesn’t want to.” Albus stuttered.

Scorpius stalked over to the window and pulled both curtains open to reveal a blanket of snow covering the school grounds and beyond. He turned to Albus, throwing him a disbelieving look.

Albus laughed nervously. 

“Joke” he mumbled awkwardly.

“Right….” Ed laughed nervously, he glanced over at Scorpius, who was looking confused.

“I’ll um put on a couple of layers, just to be on the….safe side” He added.

Albus ignored the confused looks he received from the rest of the boys as they continued to get ready.

Fifteen minutes later they were all stood shivering outside the school entrance, waiting for Flora.

“Fucking Hufflepuffs” Dylan scowled. 

“Trust you to date a bloody pansy cake” Beau added, harshly.

“Why are you even here?” Isaac retorted, glaring at the boy who was his roommate, but not his friend.

Beau rolled his eyes, before storming off, to catch up with some Slytherins who shared his pure blood values.

“Good riddance” Albus muttered.

It was at that moment that Flora appeared, her mustard yellow school scarf wrapped tightly around her neck. Her short black hair was blowing in the wind; she reached up to tuck it behind her ear. She was the niece of Harry’s former friend Cho Chang, and had inherited her aunt’s beauty.

Whilst Isaac greeted his girlfriend, the others began to make their way to Hogsmede. 

On their way there they bumped into Rose and some of her Ravenclaw friends and after talking for a few minutes, they decided to get breakfast as a group, considering they had all skipped it at school.

They chose to get pancakes at a new place that had opened on the high-street called ‘Colin’s’, the restaurant had been opened recently by the younger brother in memory of Colin Creevy himself, who had been lost in the battle of Hogwarts.

“Should we just order lots to share?” Rose suggested. 

Nobody disagreed and so they ordered what even the hungriest amongst them had to admit was an excessive amount of food. 

Everyone began to eat hungrily, Scorpius subtlety took food and shoved it in his mouth, trying to avoid being noticed. Unbeknownst to him however, Ed had been glancing at Scorpius every so often and hadn’t failed to notice the quantity that the other boy was consuming at a somewhat alarmingly fast pace. 

“It’s good to see you eating…healthily again Scorp” He said gently. 

Scorpius’ eyes widened, giving him the appearance of a deer caught in the headlights. He slowly placed his forkful of food back on his plate.

Albus scoffed.

“Oh please, Scorpius has never eaten healthily. He shoves everything he can get his hands on in his mouth” Albus said, slapping his friend on the back. Scorpius winced, which caught Rose’s attention. 

“What’s going on?” She asked curiously.

“Nothing” Albus laughed hesitantly, looking at Scorpius in confusion. The taller boy managed a weak smile, before muttering something about needing the bathroom.

Albus watched his friend speed walk to the upstairs toilets. He turned to look at Ed and Rose, who were both glaring at him.

“What?” He asked, genuinely confused.

Ed sighed and leaned over to talk to Albus.

“I think he’s probably just struggling with…being out and about” Ed murmured. 

Albus nodded, trying to understand but still slightly unsure.

“Should I…?” He asked, nodding his head towards the bathroom.

“I think he probably wants to be alone for a bit” Ed replied, giving Albus’ shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Albus blushed at the physical declaration of comfort and went back to eating his own chocolate pancake.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Scorpius had finished regurgitating his pancakes, and was now frantically rubbing at his red eyes, a result of the tears that inevitably fell every time he vomited.

Deciding that the worst of the evidence had been covered up, he exited the male toilets, before heading down the corridor at the top of the staircase. As he descended down the stairs he was distracted by the photos on the wall beside him, they had been taken by Colin Creevy himself, and now decorated the walls of the café. One photo in particular took his interest, for obvious reasons. It was a photo of a young Draco Malfoy, it was particularly unusual because instead of his usual scowl, his father’s face was decorated with a smile. Scorpius was staring at the image when Rose Weasley collided with him. He tore his eyes away from the photo and looked at the girl in front of him.

“Shit sorry Scorp, I didn’t see you there” Rose said.

“It’s okay, it was probably my fault anyway, I was…distracted” He muttered, his eyes flicking back to the photo.

Rose frowned as she took in Scorpius’ state.

“Are you alright? You’re a bit green” She said, her voice filled with concern.

Scorpius nodded and when Rose appeared unsatisfied by his response he told her he was just feeling tired. 

Luckily Rose believed him, the bags under his eyes probably added to the validity of the story. Scorpius began to make his way around her on the staircase.

Rose caught his arm. “I’m always here, if you need to talk” She said kindly.

Scorpius smiled at her and the two parted ways.

When he rejoined to the table, he found some of the group preparing to leave, Albus and Ed included. 

“We’re going to walk up to the shrieking shack if you want to come? “ Isaac offered. 

Scorpius nodded, blinking slightly as a wave of dizziness passed through him. 

“You okay there?” Flora asked, she was the only one who had noticed him grip on to the chair.

“Yeah” Scorpius replied.

Regardless of his response, Flora decided to keep a watch on the tall boy as her, Isaac, Dylan, Albus, Ed and of course Scorpius himself began their walk.

As they walked, Albus made a point of making conversation with Scorpius. 

“My Dad told me a story about him and your Dad that happened here” He chuckled, laughing at the memory of the story.

“Yeah I think I know which one you mean” Scorpius replied.

“My Mum told me” he added.

Albus nodded and proceeded to tell Scorpius the story of how Harry threw snowballs at Draco, whilst hidden beneath his invisibility cloak.

Scorpius tried to pay attention to his friend but the dizziness had returned and he was finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open, let alone feign interest.

Noticing that Scorpius wasn’t really paying attention, Albus topped in his tracks.

“Scorp are you listening to-“ He started to say, but he was interrupted by Scorpius turning a nasty shade of grey and falling towards the floor, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

The last thing Scorpius heard before losing consciousness was Flora’s high pitched scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh we really love cliffhangers sorry! Also Flora is low key based on Soso from oitnb because we love her so much. Please leave comments and kudos because they fuel us to write! Thanks so much for reading!


	10. Lydia's socks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius opened his mouth and everyone sighed, assuming that it was as sign he had woken up, but instead he started to sing.
> 
> “Summer lovin’ had me a blast” He sung quietly.
> 
> “I hate Grease” Dylan groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No content warnings for this chapter although it does contain some swearing.

Flora’s scream was interrupted, as Ed’s quickly reached out, his arms catching Scorpius seconds before the other boy’s head could hit the cobbled pavement. 

Scorpius was still unconscious so Ed laid him on the ground, the others all hurried over to join him in standing next to motionless body.

“Is he okay?” Albus asked worriedly.

“Yeah, he just fainted, he should be fine” Ed reassured everyone.

“I hope so” Flora added.

Ed ran the mandatory medical checks on Scorpius, whilst simultaneously trying to stir the blond. 

“Scorpius? Scorp can you hear me?” Ed called, shaking the blond’s shoulder gently.

Scorpius opened his mouth and everyone sighed, assuming that it was as sign he had woken up, but instead he started to sing.

“Summer lovin’ had me a blast” He sung quietly.

“I hate Grease” Dylan groaned.

“Summer lovin’ happened so fast” Scorpius continued.

“Does this mean he’s waking up?” Flora asked, looking around at the others in confusion.

“No he just sings” Everyone replied in unison.

“Met a boy-“ Scorpius begun, opening his eyes mid-way through the sentence and instantly connected with Ed’s.

“Cute as can be?” Ed sung back teasingly.

“What?” Scorpius asked in confusion.

Realising that the other boy had no idea he’d just been singing in his sleep, Ed decided to swiftly change the subject.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.

Scorpius responded with a question of his own.

“Are we outside?”

“You fainted” Flora replied.

“Oh”

“Why did you faint?” Albus asked worriedly.

Scorpius bit his lip, trying desperately to think of a cover up excuse.

“Uh I got overheated, it’s hot out” He mumbled.

Albus gave him an incredulous look.

“As we established earlier, it’s not hot! It’s fucking snowing Scorp!” Isaac stated.

Scorpius frowned, realising that his excuse was pretty unbelievable, everyone was still staring at him, which was doing nothing to help his embarrassment or self-consciousness. He   
ducked his head and attempted to sit up. Albus rushed over to steady his friend.

“Well I guess I was just tired” He muttered.

For the second time that day, the purple bags under his eyes served as evidence for his lie and so everyone seemed to believe it. Although Scorpius wasn’t entirely convinced he’d managed to convince Albus or Ed.

“Well anyhow, we ought to get you back up to the castle” Flora said kindly.

“Can you walk?” Albus asked, helping Scorpius to stand.

Scorpius nodded, but as soon as he stepped forward it became apparent that he was wrong. He began to sway again and had to lean on Albus to stop himself from collapsing again.

“Sorry” he muttered, closing his eyes as the world began to swim around him again. He let out a shaky breath and gasped in order to try and get some oxygen to his lungs.

“Hey it’s okay” Albus said comfortingly, as he helped Scorpius to bend over and get the blood flowing back into his brain.

“Do you want a piggyback?” Ed offered.

Scorpius nodded and stood up straight again.

Albus frowned. Some part of him felt jealous that he hadn’t been the one to offer, so he decided to step up.

“Hop on then” He said loudly, positioning himself between Scorpius and Ed, placing his hands on his hips.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow at his friend.

“Al, I’m sure Ed doesn’t mind-“ He began, but Albus cut him off brusquely.

“Nonsense! I can carry you” He said firmly.

Scorpius looked concerned but hesitantly clambered on to Albus’ back. Albus seemed to sag under the extra weight, but his face was determined.

After five minutes it became clear that unfortunately Albus’ determination alone was not going to get Scorpius back to school, at least not without one, or both of the boys getting majorly injured.

So Ed stepped up.

“Look Albus” he begun “You’ve done really well to get this far, but why not let me take over from here?”

Albus looked as if he wanted to deny Ed’s offer but he was red in the face and panting heavily.

So he relinquished and allowed a very relieved looking Scorpius to get down.

In contrast to Albus’ struggle, Ed effortlessly lifted Scorpius on to his back, despite the fact that the blond was several inches taller than him.

Scorpius rested his head on Ed’s shoulder and slowly drifted into a light sleep as they made their way methodically up to the castle.

Ed wouldn’t admit it but he rather enjoyed Scorpius’ quiet rendition of ‘Popular’ from Wicked in his ear as they walked.

Eventually they came across Rose and her girlfriend Lydia, who were also on their way back to school.

Lydia was a slytherin in Ed’s year, she was a short, chubby ginger girl;, who always wore odd socks, much to Scorpius’ annoyance and her fingers were always decorated by multiple   
large rings. 

“What’s going on?” Rose asked, glancing worriedly at Scorpius, who was asleep on Ed’s back.

“Sleeping Beauty here fainted” Dylan replied.

“Oh my god is he okay?” Rose asked, her voice panicked.

Meanwhile Lydia, who had approached Scorpius, was now stroking his hair and also trying to ask if he was okay.

Scorpius awakened and nodded slowly, which did very little to confirm that he was ‘okay’ to either girl. 

“What happened?” Rose asked, addressing Ed.

“He was tired, apparently” Ed said quietly, but from the way he glanced at the boy he was carrying Rose could tell he didn’t believe exhaustion to be the true cause.

“I saw him coming out the toilets earlier” Rose whispered. 

“I think he might have been throwing up.”

Ed frowned. 

“Are you sure?” He asked quietly.

Rose nodded.

“Maybe it was all too much” Ed suggested.

Rose bit her lip.

“Yeah maybe” She said, not really believing what she was saying.

She glanced at Scorpius to see if he was listening, fortunately he was distracted by Lydia’s socks, which he was now telling her were incredibly irritating.

Rose and Ed exchanged a look as if to say that they would continue their conversation later and the group proceeded to make their way back to the school. When they eventually arrived they decided to all go to the Slytherin common room, regardless of the fact that both Rose and Flora were in different houses. Rose had been here before and so comfortably settled down on the sofa, Flora on the other hand looked around in awe before settling down.

The Slytherin common room was circular in shape and decorated with green furniture and wall hangings. Although it was dimly lit in the evenings, during the day light streamed in through large windows. Obviously this contrasted with the Slytherin common room during Harry’s time, which had been located in the dungeons. After the war the decision had been made to relocate the dorms to a brighter part of the school.

Hesitantly, Flora perched on Isaac’s lap, who was sitting on one of the many armchairs. Due to the Hogsmede trip there was hardly anyone in the common room, the only other occupants apart from their group being a couple of first and second years. Upon seeing the older students, especially Ed who was widely admired even amongst the younger years, these younger students hurried up to their dorms, leaving the group of fifth and sixth years alone.

“Wow I wish I was hot enough to clear a room” Albus said dreamily, his eyes roaming over Ed’s body.

Ignoring Albus’ strange comment Scorpius spoke up.

“So are we popular now we hang out with you?” He asked Ed jokingly.

Ed laughed but Albus glared at Scorpius.

“Don’t be ridiculous Scorp!” he snapped.

“Well someone’s on their period” Rose muttered.

Flora, misunderstanding Rose’s joke, suddenly looked horrified.

“How did you know?” she asked in a panic.

Everyone tried not to laugh as the ditzy Hufflepuff asked where the toilet was, before hurrying off, her bag in hand.

Once she was out of earshot everyone, apart from Isaac, burst into hysterical laughter.

“Doesn’t look like you’re getting any tonight mate” Dylan teased the Greek Slytherin.

Isaac blushed furiously, before chucking a pillow at Dylan’s head, unfortunately the curly haired boy ducked and the pillow hit Rose square in the face.

“Oh no you didn’t” Rose cried, before hurling a pillow straight at Isaac, who wasn’t so successful at avoiding it.

Laughing he threw a pillow back, which this time hit Albus and before they knew it the entire group were involved in a full-fledged pillow war.

Albus was about to hit Ed over the head with one of the sofa’s large cushions when Flora walked back in.

“I leave you alone for five minutes” she said dryly.

Albus, distracted by Flora’s entrance lost his balance and subsequently fell into Ed, his arm accidently elbowing the older boy’s crotch.

“Shit” said Albus as he landed on the floor.

Ed was clearly trying to pretend that the incident hadn’t happened and actually looked slightly traumatised.

The sixth year looked around the room, as if searching for something he could use to change the subject, his eyes fell upon Scorpius, who had sat back down in his chair, having   
stood up during the fight, the younger boy had closed his eyes and was resting his head against the back of the chair.

“Hey are you okay?” Ed asked in concern.

Albus began to answer before realising that nobody was paying attention to him and instead were all focused on Scorpius.

“Yeah I was just a bit dizzy” Scorpius replied, opening his eyes and shifting so he could see around Ed.

“Are you okay Al?” He asked quietly.

Albus scowled at the realisation that only Scorpius actually seemed concerned about the fact that he was currently on the floor.

“You’ll do anything to take away my thunder” He snarled. 

“Ever since your bloody Dad died you’ll do anything to make sure the attention is on you!” 

Scorpius stared at Albus in horror as his friend stormed up the stairs to his dormitory, leaving the group behind him speechless.

“The Hufflepuff common room is way more fun than this” Flora sniffled, wiping away frightened tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, please leave comments and kudos if you enjoyed it. Also we know Albus probably comes across as harsh but we're trying to show how he is flawed like all the other characters in this story. If you do think it is too much though please let us know. The next chapter will be up on Saturday!


	11. A secret girlfriend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Albus was really out of order” Rose declared.
> 
> “And what he said was entirely untrue!” Lydia added.
> 
> Scorpius glanced at Rose, he looked unconvinced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor warning for the mention of binge eating.

A few hours later Albus was still moping upstairs, Scorpius on the other hand was trying desperately to catch up on all of the work he had missed, he was almost done thanks to 

Rose and Lydia’s help and was now feeling much calmer about going back to school on Monday, at least in regards to not being behind in terms of work. Honestly he was far more   
concerned about having to function socially without letting his anxiety completely overwhelm him.

He let out a tired yawn as he closed his transfiguration book on his lap, Rose and Lydia looked up from their seats opposite him in the common room. 

“Looks like you’re all caught up then” Lydia said reassuringly. 

Scorpius nodded absentmindedly, his eyes drifting towards the staircase which led to his and Albus’ dorm, to Scorpius’ disappointment Albus was yet to remerge after storming out.

“Albus was really out of order” Rose declared.

“And what he said was entirely untrue!” Lydia added.

Scorpius glanced at Rose, he looked unconvinced.

“Was it really though?” He sighed.

“Yes” he heard a voice reply from behind him, he span around, hoping to see Albus but instead his eyes met Ed’s.

“He had no right to say what he did Scorp” The sixth year continued angrily.

“Sure, whatever” Scorpius mumbled.

Ed placed a hand on Scorpius’ shoulder comfortingly, causing the younger boy to flinch, Ed withdrew his hand, sighing. As he did so, the common room door swung open and Isaac,   
Dylan and Flora walked back in. The two boys had taken her for a walk to help calm her down, as she had been pretty shaken up by Albus’ outburst. 

“Are you alright?” Flora asked gently, as she knelt beside Scorpius.

He simply nodded again, but he could still hear Albus’ cruel words bouncing around in his mind, as anxiety bubbled in chest, making his ribs ache. He suddenly felt very conscious   
of all the people around him and he began to feel overwhelmed. He was also more than aware of the fact that he hadn’t eaten since throwing up at the pancake house that morning, and whilst he normally tried to minimise his vomiting to once a day, he desperately wanted to binge.

He stood up suddenly, causing everyone to look at him in confusion.

“I-I’ve got to go somewhere” He stuttered.

“Are we allowed to know where?” Dylan chuckled nervously, everyone was clearly concerned.

Scorpius gulped.

“Uh, to meet someone- my friend” He said, stumbling over the words of his own lie.

Everyone frowned in confusion.

“No offense” Isaac said slowly “But all your friends are in this room or sulking upstairs” He teased.

“I’m going to see Lydia” Scorpius said quickly, choosing the first name that came into his head.

“I’m right here though” Lydia laughed.

“A different Lydia!”

“There aren’t any other Lydia’s in your year, are there?” Lydia replied, scrunching her face in confusion as if trying to think of someone who shared her name at the school.

“She’s not in my year” Scorpius said hurriedly “And I really do have to go now, goodbye!” he practically shouted as he rushed out of the room, leaving his very confused friends behind him.

“What was all that about?” Isaac asked in confusion.

“I think we all know” Dylan smirked.

Everyone looked at him, completely lost, showing very clearly that everyone did not know.

“He’s clearly got a secret girlfriend!” Dylan said in exasperation, as if the answer were obvious.

“What?” Ed snapped, almost angrily.

“What’s the matter Ed? Has someone got an ickle crush on Scorpius?” Lydia teased, raising her eyebrows suggestively at her fellow sixth year.

“No” Ed replied, a little too quickly to completely convince the others.

“He doesn’t have a secret girlfriend! He’s gay” Lydia said, in a similar tone to Dylan’s.

“Gay?” Everyone asked incredulously.

“Duh, can’t you guys tell?” She asked, rolling her eyes.

“How do you know?” Ed asked in disbelief.

“Oh Ed, I have the best gaydar ever” She replied, flicking her long hair proudly.

“He’s not gay” Dylan replied “What about his secret girlfriend?” 

“There is no secret girlfriend!” Everyone shouted in unison.

Dylan mumbled something about how they never agree with anything he says, but the others dismiss it.

They slowly fell back into regular conversation and before they knew it an hour had passed and Scorpius was yet to return.

“It’s almost time for dinner” Rose stated worriedly. 

“Do you think he’ll just meet us there?” she asked the group, concern etched into her features.

“Well only one way to find out” Ed exclaimed and the group made their way down to the great hall.

When they arrived at the hall, they all began to search for Scorpius, it was generally very easy to spot the fifth year in a crowd, due to his height and silvery lilac blond hair. But today   
nobody could see him.

“Have any of you seen Scorpius?” Rose asked a group of chattering third year girls. The group giggled and shook their heads. Rose rolled her eyes at the fickle younger students and turned around to see Albus sat down at a table.

She stormed over to him .

“I don’t expect you have but is there any chance you’ve seen Scorpius?” she asked aggressively.

“Actually I have” Albus replied coolly.

“He said to tell you he was going to get dinner from the kitchens”

“And I don’t suppose you apologised for being a total dick?” She snapped.

Albus looked down guiltily and Rose rolled her eyes.

“Maybe if you dragged your head from out of your own arse, you’d notice that your best friend is really struggling!” She shouted, getting the attention of those around them. 

Embarrassed she lowered her voice.

“He needs you Al” She added quietly, before hurrying of to find Scorpius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please let us know if you're enjoying the story by leaving comments or kudos.


	12. "I'm British"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose confronts Scorpius in the kitchens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for heavy discussions and explanations of bulimia and purging.

As Rose made her way to the kitchens, her thoughts were consumed by Albus and Scorpius. It broke her heart to think about how close the two had been just a few months ago in comparison to now. Whilst Albus had always had a habit of saying the wrong thing, he was usually the first to realise his mistakes and apologise instantly. However, he had always been pretty good at not directing his harsh comments towards Scorpius, who had always been particularly sensitive towards criticism. In fact Albus was usually the one jumping to attack other people when they said something cruel to or about the blond.

Rose sighed as she thought about how the two boys had always been each other’s support network. For example, Scorpius was there for Albus when he felt inadequate as Harry Potter’s son and Albus was one of the few people who actually managed to reassure Scorpius when the other boy was feeling particularly overcome with anxiety. Rose was overwhelmed with emotion just thinking about the shift in the two Slytherin’s relationship, and so she took a moment to compose herself before entering the kitchens.

As she walked in she was met with what would have been an adorable sight, had it not been for the context of the situation or the numerous wrappers littered all over the floor. Scorpius’ head was resting in a house elf’s lap and his eyes were closed. Rose could hear the soft sound of Les Miserables coming from the sleeping boy’s mouth, a clear sign that he was asleep. She made sure to tread quietly as she approached his exhausted figure, not wanting to startle him.

“Scorp” She called softly, reaching her fingers out to stroke his soft hair.

“Do you hear the people sing” he sung quietly, his voice filled with a deep sadness that was unescapable, even in sleep.

“Singing the song of angry men-“ he sung more loudly, at this moment his eyes opened and he saw Rose looking down at him.

“Angry women…” he sung, as if correcting himself, clearly still half asleep because Rose had never heard him sing whilst fully conscious.

“Scorpius what’s going on?” Rose asked, although from the way she kept glancing at the wrappers surrounding him, Scorpius imagined she already knew.

Instead of answering her question he began to sob. Rose pulled him into her arms for a hug and he cried into her hair. She waited patiently for the tears to stop, knowing from past experiences that Scorpius was the type of person who needed to cry all of his emotions out before he was ready to discuss things rationally.

“Done?” She inquired as a he pulled back, wiping his nose on his sleeve messily, a very out of character thing for him to do.

Scorpius nodded miserably.

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?” She asked. 

“Why you’re surrounding by wrappers might be a good place to start?”

Scorpius bit his lip, Rose knew that look, it was the face he pulled when trying to decide whether or not to come clean about something. Unfortunately for Scorpius, she also knew when he was lying.

“I think they must belong to one of the house elves” he said nonchalantly.

Rose gave him a weary look.

“Yes that must be it, now if you’ll excuse me I have somewhere to be” He said, his voice high pitched and words coming out of his mouth at an alarmingly fast pace, a clear sign that he wasn’t telling the truth. He attempted to duck around Rose but she grabbed his slender arm and pulled him back.

“Rosieee” He whined, pouting and stomping his foot slightly. If it hadn’t been for the seriousness of the situation the Ravenclaw would have been tempted to chuckle at how adorable Scorpius looked with his lip stuck out.

“Scorp” she said calmly “Tell me right now what is going on or I swear I’ll-“ 

“I’m in love with you?” Scorpius blurted out, more a question than a statement.

“No you’re not, don’t try to change the subject” She replied coolly, her voice had a bossy tone to it and Scorpius couldn’t help but think she’d probably make a great teacher one day.

“I am” He insisted “In fact that’s why I have to go, it’s far too painful to be around you” He groaned, wrapping an arm around his stomach. 

“Does your stomach hurt?” Rose asked worriedly.

Scorpius gave her a disbelieving look.

“Sorry stupid question” She muttered.

“I thought Ravenclaws were meant to be smart” Scorpius joked, but there was an increasing level of nervousness in his voice.

“Look Rose I don’t want to be rude, but honestly I’m feeling a bit sick so…” His voice drifted of, as he took in the look on Rose’s face.

“And why do you think that might be?” Rose asked sarcastically.

“Could it possibly have something to do with the fact it looks like you’ve eaten half of Honeydukes?” As she spoke she gestured to all of the wrappers scattered over the floor.

“Rose please” Scorpius groaned.

“What Scorpius? What do you want me to do? Ignore the fact that I’m pretty sure one of my best friends is bulimic?” Rose shouted, placing her hands on her wide hips and raising her eyebrows.

“I’m British” Scorpius said in confusion.

Rose sighed and closed her eyes, when she opened them again she could see just how lost Scorpius was.

“Bulimia isn’t a nationality Scor, it’s an eating disorder” She said, trying to keep her voice calm and steady.

“A what?”

“An eating disorder, it’s pretty much when you binge on junk food and then throw it back up afterwards by sticking your fingers down your throat” She explained.

“Oh” Scorpius said “I don’t have that I don’t think” he added.

“Scor” Rose said quietly taking his hand “How long?”

Scorpius had tears in his eyes now.

“Pretty much since Dad died I guess, I didn’t do it on purpose at first I swear! I just ate a lot because I hadn’t in a while but then I felt really sick so I threw up, but then after a while the food just stayed down, so I started using the subrocs supply of puking pastels but I’m starting to run out and I don’t know what to do” He sobbed.

Rose pulled Scorpius into a hug again and he rested his head on her shoulder, after a few moments she heard rustling.

“Scorp what are you-“ But her question was answered when she saw the puking pastel wrapper that had been thrown hastily on the floor.

“On second thoughts this probably wasn’t the best place to do that” Scorpius muttered, placing a hand over his mouth and gagging. 

He looked at Rose pleadingly and she could see combination of franticness and fear in his eyes. 

Fortunately Rose wasn’t in Ravenclaw house for nothing, thinking quickly she grabbed a bowl, thanking god that they were in a kitchen, and thrust it under the Slytherin’s mouth, just in time for Scorpius to hunch over and vomit violently.

“Shit” Rose muttered as she crouched down beside a now kneeling Scorpius, who was still retching into the bowl. She rubbed his back slowly, she could feel his muscles tensing from the force and effort of puking.

“Let it out” She whispered soothingly.

After what felt like hours, Scorpius finally spat a pathetic amount of bile into the bowl and lifted his head up, he gave Rose a guilty look.

“Maybe I do have a bit of a problem” He said sadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'd like to point out that Rose is by no means a nutritionist or a psychologist, which is why she 'diagnoses' Scorpius so quickly and also why her explanation is so basic. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	13. back 2 skl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sorry you have to deal with this” He mumbled, looking down at the floor, as Rose finished cleaning him up.
> 
> “Hey” She said, lifting his chin up with her fingers “Don’t you dare blame yourself” Her voice was firm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for mentions of vomit and weight loss

“Come on Scorp. Let’s get you cleaned up, eh?” Rose said in an almost a whisper, kind of proud that Scorpius was able to admit to his problem. 

Looking down at his light brown Doc Martins, he nodded solemnly, losing his balance as he stood up from the floor. Luckily Rose was able to steady him before he fell.

He walked in silence as Rose lead him to the first floor girl’s bathroom, the closest one to the kitchens.

“You might want to take your jumper off” Rose told him, as they entered the toilets “It’s got sick on it”.

Scorpius did as Rose told him, and pulled his jumper off over his head, revealing a long sleeved red and white stripy top, unlike the jumper it clung to his torso, making his recent weight loss more obvious.

“Scorp, that’s really….unhealthy” Rose said, deliberating mid-sentence to choose the least offensive word.

“I know, I do eat a lot” he replied, not realising she was actually referring to his lack of body fat.

“Never mind Scorp, its late.” 

She decided to let it go for now as he probably would get the wrong end of the stick in the state he was in. She turned on the taps at a sink, waiting for it to go warm before putting in the plug. She added in a bit of soap. Knowing that Scorpius loved bubbles, she cast an enchantment to turn the water pastel blue and frothy.

Scorpius grinned a little at the colour of the water and Rose smiled smugly to herself. Gently, she dipped a cloth into the water and used it to wipe some leftover sick from his chin, she felt bile rise up her own throat at having to touch the vomit, but manged to swallow it.

Scorpius seemed to sense her discomfort and looked away in shame.

“Sorry you have to deal with this” He mumbled, looking down at the floor, as Rose finished cleaning him up.

“Hey” She said, lifting his chin up with her fingers “Don’t you dare blame yourself” Her voice was firm.

Slowly, the two made their way back to the Slytherin common room, Rose having insisted that Scorpius was not okay to walk on his own, despite his protests.

She was about to walk in when she felt a tug at her sleeve.

“What are you going to tell them?” Scorpius asked in a hushed whisper.

“That you were feeling anxious so went to the kitchens for dinner” Rose replied, knowing that wasn’t a complete lie.

Scorpius nodded and the pair entered the common room.

Upon seeing them walk in, Ed and Dylan quickly rose from their seats and hurriedly approached them.

“Where were you at dinner?” Ed asked frantically.

Scorpius froze and looked at Rose, his eyes panicked.

“We ate in the kitchens” Rose explained. Scorpius couldn’t help but admire the steadiness of her voice.

Ed seemed satisfied with the response but Dylan was pulling a strange face at Scorpius.

“Uh, is something wrong?” Scorpius asked hesitantly. 

“Do you have a secret girlfriend?” Dylan blurted out, causing Ed to elbow him in the ribs.

“How did you know I was in love with Rose?” Scorpius asked in mock horror, placing a hand on his chest and opening his mouth with a fake gasp.

Dylan and Ed’s eyes widened but Rose just rolled hers.

“Not this again please, how many times do I have to tell you people? I’m gay!”

Scorpius chuckled before saying goodnight to his friends and walking up the stairs to bed.

“Can you send Albus down please?” Rose called after him. 

Scorpius nodded and continued to walk up the staircase. When he reached the door he paused for a moment, the last time he’d spoken to Albus his friend had accused him of  
being an attention whore. Deciding to push this aside for now he entered the room. 

“Rose wants to see you downstairs” He told Albus who was sat on his bed, an ancient runes textbook open in front of him.

“Why?” Albus asked.

Scorpius shrugged in response and pulled out his own textbook, before sitting on his bed and beginning to read.

Albus got up to leave, he considered talking to his friend and trying to apologise but he couldn’t quite decide on what to say and so decided to leave it for now. Instead he made  
his way down to the common room to find his cousin. Rose requested that they talk in private outside, so he followed her out into the corridor.

“What do you want Rose?” 

He was still in a bit of a mood from earlier.

“I really think you should talk to Scorpius, he’s not coping…well” She explained, Albus could sense the worry in her words.

“Rose his Dad just died what do you expect?” Albus said his voice exasperated “And he probably won’t care what I say anyway, you’d be better of talking to Lydia for god’s sake, he pays more attention to her and her odd socks than he does to me” he added, Rose could sense the slight tone of disappointment in his voice.

She sighed and went to leave, just before she was out of earshot, she turned and called back to her cousin.

“Give it a shot Al, he needs you!”

Albus thought about Rose’s words for a moment before walking back into the common room.

“Everything okay?” Ed asked as Albus walked over to him, the younger boy looked troubled.

“Do you think you could keep an eye on Scor?” Albus asked.

Ed looked confused.

“Why can’t you do that?” he asked, curious to hear Albus’ response.

“Because I don’t want to hurt him anymore than I already have” Albus told him honestly, before walking up the stairs to his dormitory.

The next day Ed took Albus up on his request and walked up to Scorpius at the Slytherin breakfast table.

“Can I sit?”

Scorpius nodded and shuffled up the bench to make room for the Quidditch captain.

“How are you feeling about today?”

It was Scorpius’ first day back in regular classes since Draco’s death and he had to admit he was kind of excited, he loved school and today he had Muggle studies, which was his personal favourite lesson.

When he told Ed this the older boy grinned.

“If you’re interested in Muggle Studies I could give you some maths tutoring?” He offered “My mum’s an accountant so I know quite a lot about it.”

Scorpius’ face lit up at the suggestion, showing his pure nerdiness, he nodded eagerly.

Ed patted Scorpius on the back and made his way to his own first period, winking at Albus who was sat opposite Scorpius.

Albus blushed furiously and Ed instantly regretted the flirtatious eye movement. He liked Albus sure, but not in a romantic way. In fact he was far more interested in another fifth year Slytherin, by the name of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Sorry we missed last week's update!


	14. "Are you even gay?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius looked at his best friend in confusion, he contemplated telling Albus how bad that apology had been but he was too distracted by the possibility of getting his best friend back.

_-A few days later- (Wednesday)_

Ed was always knackered by the end of Quidditch practice, whilst it was a pleasant type of exhaustion, he couldn’t help but groan when he saw Albus approaching him. He liked the younger boy, but it took so much energy to talk to him.

Albus was clearly pretty nervous but was trying to act confident. He rolled his shoulders up and held his head high.

“So Ed” Albus stated bluntly, once he was stood in front of the Captain. 

“Yes?” Ed asked, almost cautiously.

“I think it’s obvious that we both have feelings for each other” Albus announced.

Ed was almost lost for words.

“Uh, yeah sure. I mean we have grown closer this year… you know….bro” Ed responded, not wanting to acknowledge what Albus was trying to get at.

Not realising that he had just been friend-zoned, Albus continued.

“Great. So do you want to go out for a drink?” He asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah sure. Are Scorp and the others coming too?” Ed asked, realising that Albus wasn’t getting the hints.

“Oh. No I was thinking more just the two of us really…” Albus said, sounding more desperate with every word.

“Are you even gay?” Ed asked bluntly.

“Yet to be determined, but I definitely know we have chemistry” Albus replied.

Not wanting to hurt Albus, Ed thought of an excuse.

“I would Al. It’s just that you’ve been mean to Scorpius. And well….. He’s sad” The sixth year improvised.

“That’s cool. I’ll go apologise to him now. Then we can start making the arrangements.” Albus grinned, hopping off, not even bothering to say ‘bye’ to the older boy.

\---

Scorpius was in a very good mood. A combination of being able to get the eating disorder off his chest to Rose on Sunday night, and also because he was getting back into the   
routine of going to lessons. He wasn’t quite so lonely anymore.

However, when Albus came into the common room Scorpius was conflicted with his emotions. Should he be happy to see the face of his best friend? Or mad that he was yet to   
apologise? 

“Hey Scorp” Al said happily, a grin plastered to his face.

“Hi” Scorpius responded. 

“Can I talk to you a sec?” Albus asked him.

“Uhm. Sure. I guess?” Scorpius responded, he stood up and made his way to a quieter and more private part of the common room, with Albus by his side. 

“So” Albus started, thinking how to address his apology.

“What I did wasn’t cool dude. And next time, you know if another parent dies I will not be so, um, inconsiderate. And I will not try to be involved with their death. I mean not that I   
could. Both your parents are already dead. Am I missing something out?” He rambled.

“Um, Sorry?” Scorpius said slowly, answering Albus’ rhetorical question. 

“Oh. No. You don’t to apologise Scorp. It’s my fault you’re an orphan. Sooooooo, we cool?” Albus said, looking around as if he were in a rush.

Scorpius looked at his best friend in confusion, he contemplated telling Albus how bad that apology had been but he was too distracted by the possibility of getting his best friend back.

“Yeah. We’re cool, I’m meant to go to a tutoring session now, but I’ll cancel that if you want? I’d do that for you. We could work on Subrocs?” Scorpius offered excitedly.

“Oh no you go to your tutoring, we can hang out later I’ve actually got to go and tell someone something myself and we’ll probably want to hang out and talk for a really long time afterwards, but if you want we can do some Subrocs this Saturday afternoon?” Albus replied.

He knew Scorpius was disappointed from the look on the blond’s face.

“What subject is the tutoring?” He asked, trying to pay some interest in Scorpius, knowing he hadn’t really lately.

“Maths” Scorpius beamed.

“You’re such a nerd Scorp” Albus chuckled.

Scorpius grinned and Albus winked before leaving to go and find Ed.

The fifth year practically sprinted down to the Quidditch field, praying that the Slytherin captain would still be there.

As it happened he bumped into Ed on his way there, quite literally.

“Woah Albus take it easy” Ed said, steadying himself before he fell over.

“S-sorry” Albus panted, out of breath from running.

“So I talked to Scorpius and everything is okay between us now! Which means we can go out? I was thinking this weekend, Saturday afternoon?” He said eagerly, completely   
forgetting his promise to hang out with Scorpius at that time.

Ed looked at Albus’ beaming face and sighed, giving in reluctantly.

“Sure Al, it’s a date”.

Albus smiled so widely that Ed was concerned the other boy’s face might split open.

“Great so do you want to hang out now?” 

Ed sighed. 

“Actually I have to go tutor someone maths” He replied, his voice exasperated.

“Maths?” Albus asked quietly.

“It’s a muggle subj-“

“I know, are you tutoring Scorpius?”

Ed nodded.

“Yeah I’m keeping an eye on him like you asked me to” Ed explained.

“I did say that didn’t I, but I think what I meant was to do it subtlety, so maybe I should come to?” Albus suggested.

Ed shook his head, as he tried to think of yet another excuse.

“Tutoring really works better one to one” He said hastily, before hurrying away, leaving Albus behind him.

\---

Later that evening, Scorpius and Ed were finishing up their study session in a quiet corner of the library.

“Wow Algebra is fascinating! And don’t even get me started on those mixed fractions” Scorpius ranted excitedly as he put the calculator Ed had given him into his bag.

Ed watched Scorpius pack up and couldn’t help but think how adorable the blond looked when he was passionate about something.

“Is there something on my face?” Scorpius asked innocently.

“What?” Ed asked, snapping out of his trance.

“My face, it’s just you’ve been staring at it for ages” Scorpius explained.

“Oh um yeah” the sixth year lied, reaching his hand out to wipe an imaginary bit of ink off Scorpius’ cheekbone. He fingers lingered for a few seconds on the other boy’s skin.

Scorpius pulled away.

“Thanks” He said quietly.

Ed just smiled and the two began to walk together back to the common room.

“So Albus said he talked to you earlier, something about apologising?” 

Scorpius shrugged.

“Yeah more or less” He told Ed.

“He said sorry right?” Ed asked angrily.

“Sure” Scorpius muttered as the two continued to walk.

As they said goodnight and went back to bed, Scorpius realised that Albus actually hadn’t said ‘sorry’ at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Albus can be a bit of a dick in this sometimes......
> 
> Anyway double update!!!


	15. Panic Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius' first week back in lessons ends with a bang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for panic attacks

_-Friday-_

It was a quiet Friday afternoon and Scorpius was thrilled to be nearly done with his first week back in regular classes, he just had to get through History of Magic and he’d have escaped the week without a meltdown of any kind. 

He was currently sat between Albus and Ed in the Great Hall at lunch, which was proving to be interesting as both boys were acting strangely. Ed kept trying to pass things to Scorpius, despite the fact that the blond boy hadn’t actually asked for the majority of them, whilst Albus seemed desperate to help Ed out in any way possible.

“Can you two sit still for five minutes please” Dylan snapped, he was sat opposite Scorpius and claimed to be finding the constant arm movements irritating.

“Ouch!” Scorpius cried as Albus elbowed him sharply whilst reaching for some peas for Ed.

“Do you need to go to the hospital wing?” Ed panicked.

“No! What’s wrong with you today?” Scorpius asked, he’d had to put up with his two friends acting weirdly all week and had finally reached a breaking point.

He stood up angrily.

“I’m going to class” He said loudly, before walking down the great hall.

“Wait-“ Ed called after him.

“No!” Scorpius shouted, turning around to face the sixth year who had run after him, Albus in tow.

“I don’t need you to walk me to class, just let me have five minutes peace!” He yelled.

Half of the students in the hall were now staring at Scorpius and he suddenly felt self-conscious, he tugged at his jumper sleeves, pulling them over his hands and fiddling with them nervously. 

Noticing Scorpius’ distress, Ed tried to reach out and touch his shoulder, but Scorpius pulled away.

“Please just let me be” He begged in a whisper.

Ed pulled away, looking hurt which Scorpius noticed.

“I’m sorry” He added before hurrying of to his lesson, when he arrived he found Rose stood outside.

“Are you okay?” She asked, sensing Scorpius’ nervousness.

“Fine” he muttered “Can we just go to class please?”

Rose nodded and the two entered the room, taking seats next to each other in the front row, showing their eagerness to learn.

Albus walked in just before Professor Binns and took a seat a few rows back; he did not share his friend’s and cousin’s passion for history and so preferred not to sit right in front of the teacher’s desk.

As the lesson began, Rose could tell something was still up with Scorpius who wasn’t really paying much attention, at least not as much as usual, instead he was fiddling anxiously with the cuffs of his sleeves.

“Do you want to leave?” She asked gently, but Scorpius shook his head in refusal.

Rose really wished that they weren’t studying the second wizarding war and she really wished they weren’t currently on the topic of Dumbledore’s death.

“As I was saying Snape wasn’t originally intended to kill the old Headmaster” Binns said his voice dry and void of emotion. Rose saw Scorpius tense beside her.

“Sir. Do we really have to cover this?” She asked quietly, attempting to be subtle for the sake of her friend. She needn’t have bothered because it didn’t look like Scorpius had heard her; he was staring blankly at the floor.

“As I was saying, Draco Malfoy was originally supposed to carry out the murder” Binns continued.

Scorpius was out the door before the sound of his chair scraping backwards stopped echoing around classroom.

He fled to the bathroom and crouched in front of the toilet, he was hyperventilating and some part of his mind seemed to register that he was having a panic attack. He searched frantically for a puking pastel in his pockets and let out a loud sob when he found them to be empty.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard footsteps enter the bathroom.

“Hello?” He faintly heard a familiar voice call out.

He closed his eyes and upon reopening them he saw Ed squatted in front of him, he attempted to take a gulp of air but the oxygen seemed to be refusing to enter his lungs, he looked at the older boy in panic.

“Scorpius give me your hand” Ed said calmly, taking the blond boys hand and placing it on his own chest as he took deep, steady breaths.

“Try to match by breathing patterns” He instructed, Scorpius nodded and began to do so, taking shaky intakes of air in correlation with Ed.

Eventually, Scorpius was able to breathe independently and his hand slowly dropped to rest by his side, he shakily wiped the tears of his flushed cheeks and continued to focus on his breathing.

Knowing that Scorpius probably didn’t want to talk about it, Ed decided against asking what had happened; instead he shifted so he was sat next to Scorpius and placed a comforting arm around the younger Slytherin’s shoulders.

“H-How did you know w-what to do?” Scorpius asked in a whisper.

“I used to get really bad panic attacks back in my second year so I know what helps and what doesn’t” Ed explained.

Scorpius waited to see if Ed was going to give him an explanation as to why the other boy had suffered from anxiety in his second year.

He glanced at Ed, whose eyes had glazed over and was fiddling nervously and uncharacteristically with his hands, Scorpius realised that his friend didn’t wish to broach the subject further.

“I was nine” Scorpius said quietly.

Ed looked at him in confusion.

“When I had my first one” Scorpius explained. 

“It was when my parents sat me down and told me my Mum was going to die. I remember feeling like all the air had been sucked out of the room and suddenly everything started spinning and I was completely and utterly terrified. My Mum didn’t know what to do but Dad was really calm, he got me to breathe properly and then explained to me what had happened. When I got older he told me he used to get them in his sixth year because of all the pressure he was under.”

As he spoke, Scorpius’ voice grew quieter and quieter, as memories of his parents came flooding back.

“He was the only one who knew how to help until you” Scorpius whispered. 

At this point Ed and Scorpius were making eye contact, which was only broken when Ed’s eyes flicked to look at Scorpius’ lips, he leant in slightly causing Scorpius to jolt back.

The two sat in an awkward silence for a minute before Ed coughed and muttered something about how they should probably get back to the common room as the others would probably be wondering where they were. Scorpius nodded quickly, glad for an excuse to leave the somewhat tense bathroom stall.

The two walked back to the common room in silence, occasionally one would look at the other, when Ed glanced at Scorpius he could tell the other boy was lost in thought, his eyebrows were furrowed and he was repeatedly biting his lip.

When they reached the common room, Ed muttered the password and the door swung upon to reveal boisterous Slytherins, celebrating the fact it was the weekend.

“I think I’m going to go to bed” Scorpius told Ed quietly, whilst actively avoiding the curious stares he was getting from his History of Magic classmates, who had all witnessed him flee the room earlier that afternoon.

“Are you sure? It’s pretty early! We could go and grab dinner together? I mean not together, with other people” Ed said, stumbling over his words slightly.

Scorpius couldn’t help but smirk at the unusual sight of a flustered Ed McGonagall, who was known for being suave and smooth.

“No I’m really tired” Scorpius replied quietly. 

“Could you tell the others I’m alright” He added on as an afterthought, before turning and making his way up to the fifth year boys dormitory.

Ed watched the other boy hurry away, before silently cursing himself for trying to kiss his friend and probably scaring him away forever. He wasn’t even sure the other boy was gay, let alone interested in him and he couldn’t help but feel bad for almost taking advantage of his friend who was so emotionally vulnerable right now. He sighed and made his way to dinner alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leaves kudos and comments if you enjoyed it!


	16. Not that kind of sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Albus I don’t feel well” Scorpius croaked.
> 
> Concerned, Albus immediately hurried over to sit down next to Scorpius on his best friend’s bed.
> 
> “What hurts?” He asked gently.
> 
> “Everything” Scorpius replied miserably, letting out a weak sob.

_-The Next Morning- (Saturday)_

Scorpius spent the night tossing and turning, his skin was sweaty and the sheets clung to him, making him feel trapped. His thoughts were jumbled, something which irritated him greatly, considering that he liked every aspect of his life to be micromanaged, thoughts included. Unfortunately, the events of the past few weeks had both physically and mentally drained him, rendering him unable to organise his messy mind.

When he realised the whole night had passed and it was Saturday morning, Scorpius was too exhausted to get up. His head felt heavy and when he attempted to sit up his whole body ached. His throat was still hurting from the after effects of forcing himself to throw up the previous day. A quiet whimper escaped his mouth as he lay his throbbing head back on the pillows, closing his eyes and groaning in pain.

Albus, who had always been a light sleeper, was awoken by the sound of someone in pain. He scanned the dormitory for the source of the noise, and found himself unsurprised when he realised it was Scorpius.

“Scorp?” He called out quietly to the lump under the covers of the bed next to his own.

“Albus I don’t feel well” Scorpius croaked.

Concerned, Albus immediately hurried over to sit down next to Scorpius on his best friend’s bed.

“What hurts?” He asked gently.

“Everything” Scorpius replied miserably, letting out a weak sob.

Albus knew that Scorpius liked to be held when he was unwell, when he was younger Astoria would wrap her son in her arms like a baby, but, after coming to Hogwarts it was Albus that Scorpius had grown to want whenever he was so much as under the weather. 

Carefully, Albus shifted so that he was lying next to his friend, before proceeding to wrap his arms around him, stroking the other boy’s fluffy hair gently to try and soothe the headache that Scorpius clearly had.

The pair stayed in this position until gradually they fell asleep, intertwined they managed to rest peacefully and it was not until a knock at the door several hours later, in the early afternoon, that they awoke.

“I’ll get it” Albus mumbled sleepily, he rolled out of bed before padding over to the door, which opened it to reveal an awkward looking Ed.

For a moment Albus stood there staring at the older boy in confusion, before suddenly the conversation they’d had the day before flooded back into his memory.

“Shit, our date!”

Ed chuckled hesitantly.

“Who is it Al?” Scorpius called out, unable to see behind the door from his position on his bed.

“Oh, just someone, don’t worry” Albus replied vaguely.

The brown haired boy was faced with a dilemma, part of him wanted to lie here with Scorpius forever, but he also knew he’d made a commitment to Ed and didn’t want to disappoint the older boy. After a few moments hesitation, he came to a decision.

“Give me five minutes” he told Ed, before reaching out to close the door.

“We can reschedule-” Ed began to say, but Albus had already slammed the door.

“Are you going somewhere?” Scorpius asked in confusion, as Albus began to change hurriedly.

“Yeah, I’ve got to meet someone in Hogsmeade” Albus explained hurriedly, whilst searching for his other converse. 

“But I thought we said we were going to do some Subrocs stuff this afternoon” Scorpius replied quietly.

Albus yanked his lost trainer out from under his bed before standing and turning to face his friend. The hurt was evident on Scorpius’ face and he felt exceedingly guilty for abandoning him. He bit his lip and tried so think of a compromise that would put a smile in Scorpius’ miserable face.

“We can do that later” He suggested hesitantly before adding “It’s probably best you don’t handle the stock whilst you’re sick” 

“I don’t think I’m that type of sick” Scorpius whispered. 

He looked like her was on the verge of tears and Albus could tell from the tremor in his voice and shaky hands that Scorpius was broken.

“I promise I’ll be back by three! And we can watch Downton Abbey! Any episode you want?” He offered.

Scorpius seemed to have given up on the idea that Albus would stay for him and so merely shrugged. Despite his misery he agreed and told Albus to enjoy his trip.

Just before Albus opened the door to greet Ed he heard a quiet voice.

“You promise to be back by three?”

Albus nodded eagerly, before hurrying out the room, leaving Scorpius alone to wallow in his thoughts. On his way to find Ed, who seemed to have disappeared he bumped into Rose, who was walking up the corridor. 

“Hey Rose!” He called.

She whipped her head round and raised a curious eyebrow as he hurried over to her.

“Do you think maybe you could hang out with Scorpius for a bit, I’ve been with him all morning and I’ll be back by three. I just have to be somewhere for a few hours” He explained.

Rose looked at him dubiously.

“Please he’s sick and I’m really worried about him” Albus begged.

Rose sighed but agreed to check in on the blond.

Albus grinned and gave her the Slytherin common room password and was just about to run off again, when Rose grabbed him arm.

“What?” He asked in confusion.

“There was a time when you wouldn’t leave his side when he was sick” She said coolly.

Albus winced, even though she hadn’t specified a name, he knew exactly who she was talking about.

“Yeah well there was a time when I was the one who helped him when he was sad, now I’m the reason he’s broken! How would you feel if you knew you were the reason for someone you love’s pain and they were around constantly to remind you of that?” He asked, his voice breaking slightly.

Rose looked away guiltily.

Albus felt like something more needed to be said, but he found himself unable to come up with anything. Rose seemed to be having the same struggle and so instead of continuing the conversation they parted and headed in opposite directions.

As she walked away Rose found herself regretting being so blunt with Albus but in her defence, it was heart-breaking to watch such a beautiful friendship begin to crack. Furthermore, she was right in what she had said; there had been a time when the two boys were inseparable when either of them was ill. She recalled the time when Scorpius had caught pneumonia from being locked outside in a snow storm by bullies. Not only had Albus had stayed by his bedside for two weeks but he had barely slept out of worry for his friend. Of course, the friendship had always gone both ways too, as Scorpius had stuck by Albus through thick and thin.

She was so lost in thought that she barely remembered the walk to the dormitory, but the oak door in front of her made it clear she had arrived. Gently she pushed in open and stuck her head through the gap. From the position at the entrance to the room she could see Scorpius was shivering and paler than usual, despite having both his own and Albus’ quilts wrapped tightly around his small body. Upon entering the room, she hastily grabbed another blanket which she cast a heating charm on, before placing it on top of the cold boy. 

“Oh Scorpius” She said sadly, as she sat beside him on the bed.

Scorpius let out a quiet sob and so Rose pulled him carefully into her arms. 

“I want Albus” he cried. 

Rose stroked his forehead and immediately became aware of the heat radiating off her friend’s skin. The temperature charm she cast simply determined what she already knew, Scorpius had a fever. 

“You’re burning up” She informed the boy quietly.

To her dismay Scorpius seemed to lack concern and simply shrugged at the news.

“Do you have any potions?” She asked hopefully

The blonde boy gave a small nod and gestured at his trunk, Rose cast a simple summoning charm and the blue bottle flew into her hand. 

After taking the fever reducing medicine, Scorpius seemed to calm down slightly, at least enough to stop crying.

“Is it almost three?” He asked hopefully.

Rose checked her watch before shaking her head sadly.

“No, it’s only just gone one” She told him.

“Oh” Scorpius said miserably, slumping back against his pillows.

“Do you want to watch something?” Rose offered, again Scorpius just shrugged and Rose could tell he was distracted.

“We can watch a Disney film?” She suggested, trying desperately to cheer her friend up.

Scorpius gave a slight nod and Rose went to rummage through her friend’s trunk, where she knew he kept his muggle laptop and film collection.

From the corner of her eye she could see Scorpius staring blankly at the ceiling, his face void of emotion, apart from his eyes which were filled with sadness.

Rose tried again to lift his mood, this time through complimenting his cleverness.

“You really do need to teach me the spell to make cases bigger on the inside” She rambled.

“You’ve got so much space in this thing!”

Her attempts to cheer Scorpius up though fell on death ears as his face remained as downcast as ever.

She sighed and pulled out Aristocrats, which she knew was one of Scorpius’ personal favourites, after setting it up she went and sat next to Scorpius, allowing him to rest his head against her body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry we've missed so many updates! School has just been so hectic lately! We'll have another one up tomorrow though!


	17. Update

Hi readers! 

We're sorry for not updating much recently, both of us are in our last year of school before uni and drama school (Chloé got accepted into drama school yesterday yahhhhssss) so we've been busy with lots of schoolwork, and crying. 

It's not just school that's had us distracted, but also factors of our social life. One of the main being that we're both now in a relationship with eachother! It's was kinda like a really cute Scorbus moment when it happened. 

We're planning on sorting out some grammatical errors in the chapters we have already uploaded and as soon as we've finished doing that we will try to finish updating when we can. 

When we do start updating again we would love it if you could vote and comment so we know if you're enjoying it or not! 

-Ash and Chloé


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